Insight Editions · No. 191
Kamasutra
A New, Complete English Translation of the Sanskrit Text with Excerpts from the Sanskrit Jayamangala Commentary
Vatsyayana · Translated by Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar
Vatsyayana presents a systematic account of erotic life, including courtship, marriage, sexual practices, social conduct, and the arts within classical Indian society.
A study guide to Kamasutra by Vatsyayana, translated by Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar. Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the authors or publishers. Please read and buy the original.
The Book in Brief
Argument map
| Ch | Title | Gist |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | KAMASUTRA | ~244w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 2 | Introduction | ~21,481w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 3 | ONE Summary of the Text [1] | ~781w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 4 | TWO The Means of Achieving the Three Aims of Human | ~1,095w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 5 | THREE Exposition of the Arts [3] | ~871w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 6 | FOUR The Lifestyle of the Man-about-town [4] | ~1,303w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 7 | FIVE Reasons for Taking Another Man’s Wife | ~1,246w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 8 | ONE Sexual Typology According to Size, Endurance, | ~1,615w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 9 | TWO Ways of Embracing [8] | ~865w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 10 | THREE Procedures of Kissing [9] | ~859w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 11 | FOUR Types of Scratching with the Nails [10] | ~824w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 12 | FIVE Ways of Biting [11] | ~920w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 13 | SIX Varieties of Sexual Positions [13] | ~1,073w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 14 | SEVEN Modes of Slapping [15] | ~808w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 15 | EIGHT The Woman Playing the Man’s Part [17] | ~992w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 16 | NINE Oral Sex [19] | ~1,144w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 17 | TEN The Start and Finish of Sex [20] | ~1,347w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 18 | ONE Courting the Girl [23] | ~849w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 19 | TWO Winning a Virgin’s Trust [25] | ~1,264w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 20 | THREE Making Advances to a Young Girl [26] | ~1,304w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 21 | FOUR The Advances that a Man Makes on his Own [28] | ~1,414w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 22 | FIVE Devious Devices for Weddings [31] | ~858w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 23 | ONE The Life of an Only Wife [32] | ~1,293w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 24 | TWO The Senior Wife [34] | ~1,644w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 25 | ONE On the Characteristic Natures of Women and Men | ~1,401w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 26 | TWO Ways of Becoming Intimate [43] | ~985w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 27 | THREE Testing her Feelings [45] | ~841w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 28 | FOUR The Duties of a Female Messenger [46] | ~1,826w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 29 | FIVE The Sex Life of a Man in Power [47] | ~1,278w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 30 | SIX The Life of the Women of the Harem [48] | ~1,471w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 31 | ONE Deciding on a Friend, an Eligible Lover, and a | ~1,137w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 32 | TWO Giving the Beloved what He Wants [52] | ~1,296w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 33 | THREE Ways to Get Money from Him [53] | ~1,129w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 34 | FOUR Getting Back Together with an Ex-lover [56] | ~1,377w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 35 | FIVE Weighing Different Kinds of Profits [57] | ~1,340w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 36 | SIX Calculating Gains and Losses, Consequences, an | ~1,653w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 37 | ONE Making Luck in Love [59] | ~1,656w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 38 | TWO Rekindling Exhausted Passion [62] | ~1,453w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 39 | Appendix: Excerpts from Devadatta Shastri’s Commen | ~3,722w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 40 | Kamasutra | ~285w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 41 | Footnote | ~3,805w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 42 | part01-ch01fn | ~836w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 43 | part01-ch02fn | ~1,542w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 44 | part01-ch03fn | ~428w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 45 | part01-ch04fn | ~777w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 46 | part01-ch05fn | ~1,351w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 47 | part02-ch01fn | ~2,852w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 48 | part02-ch02fn | ~326w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 49 | part02-ch03fn | ~473w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 50 | part02-ch04fn | ~294w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 51 | part02-ch05fn | ~275w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 52 | part02-ch06fn | ~1,092w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 53 | part02-ch07fn | ~667w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 54 | part02-ch08fn | ~1,058w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 55 | part02-ch09fn | ~695w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 56 | part02-ch10fn | ~357w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 57 | part03-ch01fn | ~295w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 58 | part03-ch02fn | ~235w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 59 | part03-ch03fn | ~437w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 60 | part03-ch04fn | ~363w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 61 | part03-ch05fn | ~474w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 62 | part04-ch01fn | ~240w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 63 | part04-ch02fn | ~598w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 64 | part05-ch01fn | ~1,040w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 65 | part05-ch02fn | ~254w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 66 | part05-ch03fn | ~190w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 67 | part05-ch04fn | ~762w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 68 | part05-ch05fn | ~204w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 69 | part05-ch06fn | ~415w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 70 | part06-ch01fn | ~1,352w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 71 | part06-ch02fn | ~1,114w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 72 | part06-ch03fn | ~1,040w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 73 | part06-ch04fn | ~428w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 74 | part06-ch05fn | ~176w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 75 | part06-ch06fn | ~527w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 76 | part07-ch01fn | ~468w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 77 | part07-ch02fn | ~769w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
KAMASUTRA
THE Kamasutra is the oldest extant Hindu textbook of erotic love. It was composed in Sanskrit, the literary language of ancient India, probably in North India and probably sometime in the third century of the common era, most likely in its second half, at the dawn of the Gupta Empire.
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Kamasutra
THE Kamasutra is the oldest extant Hindu textbook of erotic love. It was composed in Sanskrit, the literary language of ancient India, probably in North India and probably sometime in the third century of the common era, most likely in its second half, at the dawn of the Gupta Empire. Virtually nothing is known about the author, Vatsyayana Mallanaga, other than his name and what we learn from this text.
Cycle 629
WENDY DONIGER (O'FLAHERTY) is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and the author of translations of Sanskrit texts, including the Rig Veda (1981) and the Laws of Manu (1991), as well as books about India-Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India (1988)-about myth-Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes (1984)-and about sex-Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (1973) and The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade (2000). SUDHIR KAKAR is a psychoanalyst and currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.
He is the author of many books on India that cover a wide spectrum from Hindu childhood to India's healing traditions, from male-female relations to Hindu-Muslim violence, from classical love tales to modern mysticism. His most recent books are The Ascetic of Desire (1999), a fictionalized account of the life of Vatsyayana, the author of the Kamasutra, and the the novel Ecstasy (2001).
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Introduction
I. THE TEXT The Text and its Author(s) The Kamasutra is the oldest extant Hindu textbook of erotic love.
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Introduction
THE TEXT The Text and its Author(s) The Kamasutra is the oldest extant Hindu textbook of erotic love. It is not, as most people think, a book about the positions in sexual intercourse. It is a book about the art of living-about finding a partner, maintaining power in a marriage, committing adultery, living as or with a courtesan, using drugs-and also about the positions in sexual intercourse.
Ladder 631
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But Vatsyayana tells us something important about his text, namely, that it is a distillation of the works of a number of authors who preceded him, authors whose texts have not come down to us: Auddalaki, Babhravya, Charayana, Dattaka, Ghotakamukha, Gonardiya, Gonikaputra, and Suvarnanabha. These other authors, called 'teachers' or 'scholars', supply what Indian logic called the 'other side' (literally, the 'former wing', purvapaksha), the arguments that opponents might raise. In this case, they are 'former' in both the logical and chronological sense of the word; Vatsyayana cites them often, sometimes in agreement, sometimes in disagreement.
Hub 633
Always his own voice comes through, as he acts as ringmaster over the many acts that he incorporates in his sexual circus. The Kamasutra was therefore certainly not the first of its genre, nor was it the last. The many textbooks of eroticism that follow it, such as Kokkaka's Ratirahasya (also called the Kokashastra, pre-thirteenth century) and Kalyanamalla's Anangaranga (fifteenth century), cite it as a foundational authority.
Cycle 634
(There were many other sciences, preserved in texts about medicine, astronomy, architecture, the management of horses and elephants, and so forth.5) The Kamasutra opens with a discussion of dharma, artha, and kama, known collectively as the three aims of human life (purusharthas) or the trinity (trivarga). For assonance, one might call them piety, profit, and pleasure, or society, success, and sex, or duty, domination, and desire. More precisely, dharma includes duty, religion, religious merit, morality, social obligations, the law, justice, and so forth.
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Vatsyayana's commitment to dharma emerges frequently at the end of a chapter. Artha is money, political power, and success; it can also be translated as goal or aim (as in the three aims of human life), gain (versus loss), money, the meaning of a word, and the purpose of something. Kama represents pleasure and desire (what the Germans call Lust and Wollust), not merely sexual but more broadly sensual-music, good food, perfume, and so forth.
Flow 10
This basic trinity is one of several important triads in Hinduism, whose role in Hindu intellectual history demonstrates that 'three' became a kind of shorthand for 'lots and lots'; these threes represented the multivalent, varied, multiform, multi-whatever-you-like nature of the real phenomenal world. The world of the triads is the India of fabled elephants encrusted with jewels and temples covered with copulating couples. This paradigm began in the earthy, vibrant text known as the Rig Veda, the oldest sacred text in India, composed in about 1000 BCE, and it still prevails in certain sectors of Hindu society and religion today.
But it came to share centre stage with another paradigm that might have subverted or destroyed it altogether, but which, instead, simply came to supplement it as an alternative view of human life; this is the ascetic movement. The omphalosceptic yogis who composed the early Upanishads over a period of a few centuries, probably beginning in the seventh century BCE, fled from the sensual world of sex and sacrifice but did not destroy it. The two worlds remain in conversation in the Kamasutra.
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'Our civilization', by contrast, is the only one to have the scientia sexualis, which Foucault limits, with characteristic Euro-centrism, to Europe, taking as his criterion the element of confession. But if we set confession aside, the subsidiary criteria of the scientia sexualis, such as 'the testimony of witnesses, and the learned methods of observation and demonstration', place the Kamasutra in this camp. For Vatsyayana cites witnesses in the form of previous scholars, and his arguments are based on close observation and experience.
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In fact, however, the Kamasutra has characteristics of both 'procedures', thus posing a challenge to Foucault's taxonomy. The very style in which most of the text is composed, aphoristic prose passages, or sutras, has associations with both religion and science. A sutra is literally a thread (cognate with the English words 'sew' and 'suture'), on which pages (generally palm leaves) and thoughts are strung like beads to form a kind of atomic string of meanings.
The text is so intensely condensed, so starkly cryptic, that the task of understanding it frequently seems more like deciphering than translating. A sutra that states literally, in its totality, 'Because of the close connection with it' [1.1.4] requires the reader to understand what is being connected with what, most of which, but not always all, may be deduced from the context. (It probably means, 'Because those subjects are integral to the text [scholars made known their mutual agreement].') This renders the text ambiguous in many places, and, to that extent, unclear; it cries out for the help of a commentary to unpack it, just as the cryptic nature of the early religious texts, the Vedas, required the help of a guru.
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More precisely, by claiming to be merely descriptive it is able to position its prescriptions and proscriptions as if they were facts rather than suggestions. It situates itself in the no man's land between the world of possibilities and the world of observations, between 'should' and 'is'. For the shastric 'should' functions both in the sense of, 'The sun should rise in the east at 8 a.m.
Flow 640
tomorrow', and in the sense of, 'A servant should never look at a Brahmin woman.' These two mutually enforcing goals are supported by two different literary forms, prose and verse. For the Kamasutra is not entirely in prose. A few verses are cited at the end of every chapter, usually without explicit attribution, and through them some other voices may enter the text; in all, these verses constitute about a tenth of the text.
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They are in the form of shlokas, not a complex poetic form but the normal improvisational form of poetry, rather like blank verse in English, with a loose rhythm and no rhyme. This is the verse form in which the great Sanskrit epics and the Laws of Manu are composed. The prose, by and large, describes what people do; only in the verses does Vatsyayana explicitly suggest what people should do.
He may be quoting some of these verses from earlier texts, though if so it is odd that he does not name the authors, as he does in his prose arguments (and as Yashodhara does in several notes). He himself may have invented some of the verses. The Sanskrit commentator says from time to time that Vatsyayana is quoting someone else because the act in question is not actually forbidden, implying that this is a way of allowing it without actually taking responsibility for it; the verses at the end of a chapter may also serve this function.
Ladder 641
[7.2.54] A more complex example occurs at the end of the long, Machiavellian discussion of ways to seduce other men's wives [5.6.46-8]. Vatsyayana appends here a few verses insisting that he intends his work not as a handbook for adulterers but, rather, to help husbands detect the clues of other people's adulteries in order to confound them. Is this the author's paper-thin attempt to avoid being accused of teaching people to commit adultery?
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Or a warning that says, in effect, 'Kids, don't try this at home'? Or is it a deeper warning, encouraging the reader to imagine himself not as the cuckolder but as the cuckold, to recall that eternal vigilance is the price of fidelity? Or the voice of religion, long silent, returning at a central moment?
The verses that function in the second way, extending the possibilities, seem to have the very opposite effect, opening up the text. For instance, after describing many embraces, some of which 'can only be learned with practice', Vatsyayana concludes with these verses: Some sexual embraces, not in this text, also intensify passion; these, too, may be used for love-making, but only with care. The territory of the texts extends only so far as men have dull appetites; but when the wheel of sexual ecstasy is in full motion, there is no textbook at all, and no order.
Hub 643
[2.2.30-31] Often Vatsyayana seems to invoke an ancient Indian cultural relativism: certain acts are permitted only in certain regions. This opens up the text until, in some instances, he qualifies it, as he does in the case of violent blows called 'wedges': 'This is a particular local custom. But Vatsyayana says: It is a painful and barbarous thing to do, and not to be sanctioned.
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So, too, one should not take any other custom used in one particular region and use it in another. One should also avoid, even in the region where it is used, anything that is dangerous' [2.7.24-7]. Whether these capping verses limit or extend the preceding chapter, they seem to increase the options by arguing for the particularity of individuals who may use the text.
In the context of ancient Hindu social theory, however, they may have precisely the opposite effect, of constraining the possibilities. For they return the reader to another conservative framework that is conspicuously absent from the text: the framework of caste, of the belief that each individual has his (or, in relatively few cases, her) own dharma and therefore his own limited range of actual options appropriate to him, out of the totality of ideal human options. Do these verses express Vatsyayana's true voice, what he wants the reader to remember and take away?
Cycle 644
He has also made it clear in this section that unusual sexual acts are base. Even when the author of a treatise considers something as base, he gives it a place in his treatise because there are all sorts of people in this world with different characters and inclinations. Some have an animal nature; they get enjoyment from unusual sexual acts.
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The Bhagavata Purana [11.5-11] says that it is necessary to be free from such tendencies: 'At the times of marriage, sacrifice and other such occasions, we may need to engage ourselves with these inclinations. But our goal should be freedom. Sexual intercourse, drinking, and eating meat do not need an impetus because people are naturally inclined towards them.
Because of this natural bent, these inclinations cannot be destroyed. That is why they are regulated and why rules are made governing an engagement with them on special occasions.' The Rig Veda has openly elaborated on this intention, in verses 10.86.16-17, in which Indrani berates Indra. There is some embarrassment in translating these mantras.
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Cycle 14
The Kamasutra, however, tells us how to seduce another man's wife. It will not do to maintain that the latter is a treatise on a particular kind of behaviour and has no link to religion. Actually, religion, power, and pleasure are interconnected.
The goal of pleasure is related to the other world as much as it is to this one. A treatise never turns its gaze away from reality. The Kamasutra is not a religious text but it does not transgress social and ethical boundaries.
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Based on human psychology, the Kamasutra is a way of looking at the world. After analysing the inclinations of men, good and bad, its conclusions are guided by a concern for human welfare. A treatise incorporates a discussion of both the good and the bad, but one should act only on the good.
In the eyes of the author of the Kamasutra, adultery is a great sin. But how could he deny its pervasive reality? How could he not discuss this human tendency which has manifested itself throughout the whole of human history?
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That is why Vatsyayana gives a place to adultery in the Kamasutra. The Upanishads, too, view the satisfaction of 'left-handed' desires as the purpose of sex with other men's wives. The Ayurveda prescribes adultery as a remedy for erotic fever.
Vatsyayana was not only a scholar but a reformer and builder of society. He clearly states that a treatise demands the inclusion of everything, good or bad. Using their discrimination, reflective people should accept only the good.
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Just because the Ayurveda prescribes dog's flesh for a particular disease, it does not mean that dog meat should be consumed for every disease. Similarly, if a person must sleep with another man's wife because of the exigencies of a specific situation, then it is not bad-if he does so after a study of the Kamasutra and after employing a mature judgment. But if everyone believes that adulterous sex is a prescription to be followed, then society will lose all its moorings, children will lose their caste.
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(Most editions of the Burton translation exacerbate this quasi-scientific appearance by numbering lists that Vatsyayana does not number, or even count, in the Sanskrit original, such as the reasons for women to commit, or not to commit, adultery [5.1].) The numbers alone would not qualify a text as scientific, though they do serve to bolster two more significant characteristics of that genre, the appeal to empirical evidence and the logical syllogism. Numbers are useful in a literature of this genre, as they serve as mnemonic devices and help scribes to check to see if they have left something out.
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Ayurvedic medical texts list sixty-four main diseases of the body, a number that also occurs in the ancient law books. The Laws of Manu, pronouncing on the weight of transgressions committed by the four different classes, says that the guilt of a thief who belongs to the lowest class is eight times the value of the stolen object, of the third class sixteen times, of the second class thirty-two times, and of a Brahmin sixty-four times [8.337-8]. In the initiation rites the circle symbolizing the universal spirit is divided into four quarters, every quarter again into four parts, to indicate that the initiate is to receive sixteen branches of knowledge.
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Ladder 16
There are just too many' [2.1.33]. At this, Yashodhara remarks, rather flat-footedly, that they are not innumerable at all: 'There are nine forms of each of the three categories, making twenty-seven possibilities for each man and the same number for each woman. If these mate in all possible combinations, the total comes to 729 (27 × 27).' But this is a path down which Vatsyayana disdains to tread.
As he remarks [at 2.7.31]: This is no matter for numerical lists or textbook tables of contents. For people joined in sexual ecstasy, passion is what makes things happen. Enumeration may be a way of taming a subject that always threatens to break out of its shastric cage.
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Some of the most sensitive issues in the Kamasutra are domesticated by being enumerated; this is particularly true of Book Two, about the sexual act. In addition to the sixty-four that summarizes the text of that book, as we have just seen, and the 729 combinations of sexual types, many other aspects of sexuality stand up to be counted. There are 4 types of love [2.1.39-45], and some 105 other techniques: 12 embraces, 17 kisses, 16 bites and scratches, 17 positions, 6 unusual acts, 16 slaps and screams, 10 sexual strokes of a man, and 3 more movements for a woman acting the role of a man, 8 acts in oral sex, and, finally, 7 kinds of sex.
But other tabulations prove more slippery, such as the reasons for sleeping with another man's wife, which number 3, or 4, or 5, or 6, or 7, or 8, depending on whose system you follow [1.5.3-26]. The very fact that there is such disagreement about the precise number of reasons for adultery, and that the so-called fourth reason is basically a catch-all for any convoluted justification, with numerous separate items (thirteen or seventeen, depending on how you divide it), shows that the constraining net of numbers quickly stretches rather thin.
Cycle 654
(Manu, too, formulates totalities in this way and then pulls back to qualify them. He constructs a network of rules so tight as to make life virtually impossible, and then offers the escape clause of apad, the emergency situation in which no rules apply at all.26) At these points, the Kamasutra is moving out of its scientific body into a non-scientific frame with a religious or moral viewpoint. The Kamasutra as a Play in Seven Acts Beneath the veneer of a sexual textbook, the Kamasutra resembles a work of dramatic fiction more than anything else.
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The man and woman whose sex lives are described here are called the nayaka and the nayika (male and female protagonists), and the men who assist the nayaka are called the pitamarda, vita, and vidushaka (the libertine, pander, and clown). All of these are terms for stock characters in Sanskrit dramas-the hero and heroine, sidekick, supporting player, and jester-according to yet another textbook, the one attributed to Bharata and dealing with dramatic writing, acting, and dancing, the Natyashastra. The very last line of the Kamasutra speaks of a man playing the part of a lover, as if on the stage.
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Is the Kamasutra a play about sex? Certainly it has a dramatic sequence, and, like most classical Indian dramas, it has seven acts. In Act One, which literally sets the stage for the drama, the bachelor sets up his pad; in Act Two, he perfects his sexual technique.
Ladder 656
In the outermost frame, Pirandello-like, the author is a character in constant conversation with other authors who are characters. Inside this outer frame,28 there are numerous dialogues between men and women and between women and women, as well as a number of soliloquies, such as the passage alluded to above, in which men justify to themselves their reasons for committing adultery [1.5.3-26], and others in which courtesans justify to themselves their methods for jettisoning, or taking back, ex-lovers [6.4.1-34]. Even the lists in the text sometimes become dialogues in the commentary, when Yashodhara expands upon a single noun by imagining a dialogue around it.
Thus, for example, Yashodhara glosses one of the reasons for a courtesan to take a lover, 'compassion': 'Taking pity on someone who says, "I will die if you will not make love with me"̱ [6.1.17]. I would never do anything like that!"' [6.2.56].
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And, finally, the text is like a drama because it is a fantasy. More precisely, it combines a survey of actual sources of pleasure in ancient India ('is') with imaginative suggestions for other sources of pleasure ('should', or perhaps, 'could'). For example, the passage about sneaking into the harem [5.6] is pure fairy-tale, including ways to become invisible and the trick of wearing woman's clothing, straight out of the romances of the Ocean of Story ('could'); but it is also laced with some rather closely observed psychological tips on ways to break into a house ('is').
On the one hand, the Kamasutra abounds in realia, in details about foods and clothing and games and drugs and the most banal aspects of housekeeping ('is'). On the other hand, it imagines a world not only of total sexual freedom but of total social freedom altogether ('could'). The male protagonist may be of any class, as we learn from Vatsyayana [at 3.2.1], Yashodhara [on 1.4.1] and Shastri [on 1.4.35]: 'This classification of rich and poor citizens acquaints us with the social order that prevailed in Vatsyayana's times.
Hub 658
Here, it is nowhere mentioned that only persons of high caste were rich and of low castes, poor. It appears that after becoming rich one rose high in the social order; the low caste disappeared.' But the man-about-town has no caste, no social ties. Moreover, he has, as we say of a certain type of man today, no visible source of income.
Hub 18
Vatsyayana tells us, at the start of the section headed 'The Lifestyle of the Man-about-Town', that the playboy may have to live 'wherever he has to stay to make a living' and that he finances his lifestyle by 'using the money that he has obtained from gifts, conquest, trade, or wages, or from inheritance, or from both'. His sidekicks, too, have quite realistic present money problems [1.4.31-3], his wife is entrusted with all the household management, including the finances, and his mistresses work hard to make and keep their money.
But we never see the man-about-town at work. Busy teaching his birds to talk, he never drops in to check things at the shop. Throughout the text, his one concern is the pursuit of pleasure.
And if there were, was this, for them, a world that merely snapped into place on holidays? Was it real for the rich, and for city-dwellers, and mere fantasy for the poor, and for villagers? Or was it, for all readers, a world of ideal sex like Erica Jong's 'zipless fuck',30 or the capitalist fantasies of Hugh Hefner's glossy Playboy empire?
Cycle 659
Flow 660
Cycle 19
Large portions of the Kamasutra are clearly written for men, yet the women in the Kamasutra speak in Sanskrit, and Vatsyayana argues at some length that some women, at least, should read this text, and that others should learn its contents in other ways [1.3.1-14]. Book Three devotes one section to advice to virgins trying to get husbands [3.4.36-47], and these women certainly have agency. Book Four consists of instructions for wives; and Book Six is said to have been commissioned by the courtesans de luxe of Pataliputra, presumably for their own use.
Their powers may have been extensive but fragile; the devious devices that the courtesan uses to make her lover leave her, rather than simply kicking him out [6.3.39-44], are an example of what the anthropologist James Scott has taught us to recognize as the 'weapons of the weak.' Yet Shastri [on 1.5.3] suggests that these women were very privileged indeed: The difference between the courtesan [veshya] and the courtesan de luxe [ganika] is the difference between the earth and the sky. The most beautiful, talented and virtuous among the courtesans was given the title of courtesan de luxe.
Ladder 661
The Lalitavistara calls a princess versed in the texts a courtesan de luxe. In the Kavyamimamsa, Rajashekhara writes that in ancient times many courtesans de luxe and princesses were excellent poets. The daughters of these courtesans de luxe had the right to study together with the sons of men-about-town.
In fact, a courtesan de luxe was regarded as the wealth and glory of the entire kingdom. The whole society was proud of her. On hearing the name 'courtesan', one should not imagine that this was a woman who had had discarded all social conventions and customary modes of conduct.
Compare 662
The courtesan is an uncommon woman whose upbringing and education is also extraordinary. She is educated in a way that facilitates physical and mental development, an education of which ordinary women are deprived. Courtesans have been educated and skilled since ancient times.
Well-born maidens profited from their abilities. They were regarded as a special part of the society. Courtesans are often mentioned in Tantric treatises.
Buddhist literature is also full of praise for courtesans. They are described in detail in the Puranas, the Kavyas and in Jaina literature. All courtesans were proud of their beauty.
Flow 20
The works of Bhasa, Kalidasa, Vishakhadatta, Magha, Dandin, Shudraka, Bana and other poets provide interesting descriptions of courtesans. Some women, and not only courtesans, may well have had both the economic power to obtain a copy of the Kamasutra and the power to learn to read Sanskrit. If parts of the text are directed toward women, is it also the case that they reflect women's voices?
Hub 663
But are both men and women subjects in the Kamasutra? The text not only assumes an official male voice (the voice of Vatsyayana) but presents methods that deny that women's words truly represent their feelings; women's shouts of 'Stop!' or 'Mother!' are taken not as indications of their wish to escape the pain being inflicted on them, but merely as part of a ploy designed to excite their male partners [2.7.1-21]. These passages inculcate what we now recognize as the rape mentality-'her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes'-a dangerous line of thought that leads ultimately to places where we now no longer want to be: disregarding a woman's protests against rape.
Cycle 664
The Kamasutra, however, often quotes women in direct speech, expressing views that men are advised to take seriously, and it is surprisingly sympathetic to women, particularly to what they suffer from inadequate husbands. Of course, male texts may merely engage in a ventriloquism that attributes to women viewpoints that in fact serve male goals. But in numerous places, the Kamasutra expresses points of view clearly favourable to women,39 particularly in comparison with other texts of the same era.
The discussion of the reasons why women commit adultery, for instance, rejects the traditional patriarchal party line that one finds in most Sanskrit texts such as the Laws of Manu: 'Good looks do not matter to women, nor do they care about youth; "A man!" they say, and enjoy sex with him, whether he is good-looking or ugly' [9.15]. The Kamasutra begins its discussion of adultery with a far more egalitarian, if equally cynical, formulation: 'A woman desires any attractive man she sees, and, in the same way, a man desires a woman.
Flow 665
But, after some consideration, the matter goes no farther' [5.1.8]. The text does argue that women have less concern for morality than men have, and does assume that women don't think about anything but men. And it is written in the service of the hero, the would-be adulterer, who reasons, if all women are keen to give it away, why shouldn't one of them give it to him?
Ladder 21
But the author empathetically imagines various women's reasons not to commit adultery [5.1.17-42]; and the would-be seducer takes the woman's misgivings seriously, even if only to disarm her. This discussion is ostensibly intended to teach the male reader of the text to manipulate and exploit such women, but, perhaps inadvertently, it provides a compassionate exposition of the reasons why inadequate husbands drive away their wives [5.1.51-4]. Vatsyayana tells us that a woman who does not experience the pleasures of love may hate her man and leave him for another [3.2.35 and 4.2.31-5].
Ladder 666
A husband could not be 'hated' in this way, but there were other ways. Even Manu grants that 'A husband should wait for one year for a wife who hates him. … If she hates him because he is insane, fallen, impotent, without seed, or suffering from a disease caused by his evil, she should not be deserted or deprived of her inheritance' [9.77 and 9.79].
Vatsyayana incorporated this tradition even as he incorporated an argument in favour of female orgasm far more subtle than views that prevailed in Europe until very recently indeed [2.1.10-31]. In addition to his general representations of women's voices and needs, Vatsyayana tells us that an entire work, the basis of Book Six of his own work, was commissioned by women, courtesans [1.1.11]. And Yashodhara tells us how this happened: Dattaka happened to be cursed to be a woman for a while, and so knew how to write about courtesans from both sides of the bed, as it were.
Compare 667
Were we to remain within the strict bounds of the historical situation, we could not notice the women's voices speaking against their moment in history, perhaps even against their author. Only by asking our own questions, which the author may not have considered at all, can we see that his text does contain many answers to them, fortuitously embedded in other questions and answers that were more meaningful to him. We may search in this way for the voices not only of women but of people who engage in homosexual acts.
Hub 668
Compare 22
It is a catch-all term that traditional Hindus coined to indicate a man who is in their terms sexually dysfunctional (or in ours, sexually challenged), including someone who was sterile, impotent, castrated, a transvestite, a man who had oral sex with other men, who had anal sex, a man with mutilated or defective sexual organs, a man who produced only female children, or, finally, a hermaphrodite. But the Kamasutra departs from this view in significant ways. It does not use the term kliba at all.
It mentions sodomy in only one passage, and in the context of heterosexual sex: 'The people in the South indulge in "sex below", even anally' [2.6.49]. (Southerners have a pretty poor reputation in this book composed in the North, and it may be that their geographical position suggested their sexual position in this passage: down under.) Fellatio is regarded as the defining male homosexual act, and Shastri argues that Vatsyayana discusses even this only because his totalizing project forces him to do so: It is clear that this act [fellatio] is extremely base and that it is not a new but an old and wicked deed in our tradition, since Dharmashastras condemn it.
Cycle 669
One might ask if this act is so reprehensible then why does it find a supporter in Vatsyayana? A treatise (shastra) is a reference book. Fellatio is a sexual act; it is related to sexual desire and it has a tradition.
How, then, can a treatise ignore it? Giving primacy to human inclinations and local customs, Vatsyayana says that a shastra has no meaning for the dissolute, nor does acting against the shastra bring sin to the wicked. Fellatio is an act which is proper if permitted by local custom or if it suits a person's particular taste.
Flow 670
[At the end of 2.9] In fact, though the Kamasutra quickly dismisses the cross-dressing male, it discusses the fellatio technique of the closeted man of the third nature in considerable sensual detail, in the longest consecutive passage in the text describing a physical act, and with what might even be called gusto [2.9.6-24]. Moreover, as in several other cultures, the active partner in a homoerotic encounter was not stigmatized as the passive partner was. The Kamasutra's man-about-town who uses the masseur's mouth for sexual pleasure is thus not considered 'queer'; the masseur is.
(Elsewhere the text quotes scholars who warn the bridegroom that if he is too shy, his bride 'will be discouraged and will despise him, as if he were someone of the third nature' [3.2.3].) Two verses that immediately follow this section describe (in striking contrast with men of the third nature, always designated by the pronoun 'she') men who seem bound to one another by discriminating affection rather than promiscuous passion, and although these men, too, engage in oral sex, they are designated with nouns and pronouns that unambiguously designate males [2.9.35-6]. The female messenger, praising the man's charm, says, according to Yashodhara, 'He has such luck in love that he was desired even by a man' [5.4.15].
Ladder 671
Hub 23
But they do this only in the absence of men, not through the kind of personal choice that drives someone of the third nature. As for other sorts of lesbians, Manu says that a woman who corrupts a virgin will be punished by having two of her fingers cut off [8.369-70]-a hint of what Manu thinks lesbians do in bed; Yashodhara specifies that that is how a woman deflowers another woman [7.1.20]. Shastri comments on lesbians [at the end of 2.9 and 5.5]: In passage 2.9.36, Vatsyayana hints at homosexuality.
The commentator Yashodhara has explicated Vatsyayana's opinion by mentioning homosexuality in men and also in women. These days, the act of women rubbing their vulvas together is called a chapati. [A chapati is an Indian bread shaped somewhat like a pita bread.] Vatsyayana has discussed all kinds of natural and unnatural means for the satisfaction of unslaked sexual desires.
Compare 672
But it is surprising that he does not talk of 'chapati' [lesbian] intercourse among unsatisfied queens. Perhaps 'chapati' intercourse had not yet appeared at Vatsyayana's time; otherwise, it could not have remained hidden from his penetrating gaze. Today, when the emphasis on virginity has increased, the playing of 'chapati' and the employment of artificial means for sexual satisfaction among girls are also increasing.
The commentators, therefore, seem more troubled by the topic than Vatsyayana is. And so, despite the caution with which this topic is broached, there are ways in which some parts of the Kamasutra might be read as a text for homoeroticism. More precisely, it is possible to excavate several alternative sexualities latent in the text's somewhat fuzzy boundaries between homoeroticism and heteroeroticism.
Hub 673
At the end of the discussion of the third nature, Vatsyayana grants that some women, too, perform oral sex, though he strongly disapproves of it and attributes it largely to women from distant parts of India [2.9.25-41]. (He says that this is one of the ways that a group of men can pleasure one woman [2.6.46-7], and even that it is what makes women prefer otherwise useless men to good men [2.9.39], and he clearly disapproves of both of these types of women.) Fellatio, therefore, is permitted for (some) men, and not for (our) women.
But the fact that the word 'nature' is feminine in Sanskrit (as it, and most abstract nouns, are also in Latin and Greek), leads Vatsyayana to use the feminine rather than the male pronoun throughout the description of the masseur seducing his male client. (He also lists the third nature among women who can be lovers [at 1.5.27].) This passage, therefore, can be read heterosexually, instructing a woman how to seduce a man through oral sex. By the same token, one might argue that the female pronoun used for the active partner in the section on 'the woman playing the role of the man' (the woman on top) might refer to a male of the third nature and represent homoerotic rather than heteroerotic sex.
Cycle 674
Cycle 24
This is an ingenious and suggestive reading, but at the cost of ignoring the gender of the pronouns and the meaning of several key Sanskrit words in the text. Daniélou makes the woman the subject and the man the object ('she unties his undergarment'), reversing the genders expressed in the text [2.8.8]; he translates svairini, designating an independent and presumably promiscuous woman (which we translate as a 'loose' woman), as 'lesbian'. When the text uses the phrase that always describes the man's sexual organ inside the woman's (yukta-yantra, literally 'when the instrument has been attached'), Daniélou interprets this as meaning that the woman inserts a dildo in her partner's anus.
Flow 675
The acts he demonstrated before are acts that he executed with roughness and ferocity, the man's natural talent; she now does these acts against the current of her own natural talent. She hits him hard, with the back of her hand and so forth, demonstrating her ferocity.
And so, in order to express the woman's natural talent, even though she is not embarrassed, nor exhausted, and does not wish to stop, she indicates that she is embarrassed and exhausted and wishes to stop. Vatsyayana has already defined the 'woman's natural talent' [2.7.22] as 'suffering, self-denial, and weakness', in contrast with the man's natural talent, his roughness and ferocity, just as he has defined the woman's nature as passive, the man's as active [2.1.26]. He has also listed the female traits that one sort of man of the third nature imitates: 'chatter, grace, emotions, delicacy, timidity, innocence, frailty, and bashfulness' [2.9.2].
Ladder 676
Now, since he has maintained [at 2.8. 39] that the woman 'unveils her own feelings completely when her passion drives her to get on top', the feelings of the woman when she plays the man's role seem to be both male and female. Or, rather, when she acts like a man, she pretends to be a man and then pretends to be a woman.
Compare 677
Flow 25
(It becomes even more complex when we recall that 'release' is the same word that, on the one hand, Vatsyayana uses for the courtesan's technique of getting rid of an unwanted lover [at 6.3.44] and that, on the other hand, in a religious context, signifies ultimate liberation from the wheel of rebirth.) Altogether, these readings of homo- and heteroerotic passages, some closer to the text than others, suggest various ways in which the Kamasutra's implicit claim to sexual totality might be opened out into a vision of gender infinity. Psychology and Culture in the Kamasutra The Kamasutra can be viewed as an account of a psychological war of independence that took place in India some two thousand years ago.
The first aim of this struggle was the rescue of erotic pleasure from the crude purposefulness of sexual desire, from its biological function of reproduction alone. The first European translators of the Kamasutra in the late nineteenth century, clearly on the side of sexual pleasure in a society where the reigning Christian morality sought to subordinate, if not altogether eradicate it in service of a divinely ordained reproductive goal, regarded the ancient Sanskrit text, devoted to the god of love without even a nod to the divinities who preside over fertility and birth, as a welcome ally.
Hub 678
But they were also inheritors of another world-view, that of the Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, in which sexual love is usually a straightforward matter of desire and its gratification. This was especially so for the man, for whom a woman was an instrument of pleasure and an object of the senses (indriyartha), one physical need among many others. There is an idealization of marriage in the epics, yes, but chiefly as a social and religious act.
Cycle 679
The obligation of conjugal love and the virtue of chastity within marriage were primarily demanded of the wife, while few limits were set on a husband who lived under and looked up at a licentious heaven teeming with lusty gods and heavenly whores, otherworldly and utterly desirable at once, and most eager to give and take pleasure. The Hindu pantheon of the epics was not unlike the Greek Olympus where gods and goddesses sport and politic with a welcome absence of moralistic subterfuge.
Vatsyayana and the early sexologists were thus also heirs to a patrimony where sexual desire ran rampant, unchecked by moral constraints. Indeed, Shvetaketu Auddalaki, one of the legendary composers of the first textbooks on sex, was credited with trying to put an end to unbridled sexual coupling and a certain profligacy in relation to intercourse with married women which is so prominent in the Mahabharata. Prior to Shvetaketu's treatise, both married and unmarried women were viewed as items for indiscriminate consumption, 'like cooked rice', Yashodhara tells us [1.1.9].
Flow 680
Shvetaketu was the first to make the novel suggestion that men should not generally sleep with the wives of other men. In addition to rescuing erotic pleasure from the confining morality of fertility and reproduction, the Kamasutra's 'freedom struggle' also had a second aim. This was to find a haven for the erotic from the ferocity of unchecked sexual desire.
Ladder 26
One of the major fantasies of such men is of taking by force that which is not easily given; some imagine the woman not wishing to participate in the sexual experience but then being carried away by the man's forcefulness despite herself. We find a variant of this 'possession fantasy' in classical Sanskrit love poetry composed about the time of the Kamasutra, with its predilection for love scenes where the woman trembles in a state of diffuse but nongenital bodily excitement as if timorously anticipating an attack, her terror a source of excitement for both herself and her would-be assailant.
Ladder 681
To fulfil its aim as an authentic textbook of eroticism, the Kamasutra could not gloss over the possessive violence of sexual desire. In its chapters on biting, scratching, and slapping, we again encounter the darker purposes of sexual desire, which, Vatsyayana admits, is combative by its very nature. His effort, though, is to civilize the violence of sex, ritualize the cruelty of intercourse.
Compare 682
By giving examples of serious injury caused to women, he warns against the danger of playful violence in sex slipping into murderous cruelty. Sexual desire, then, in which the body's wanting and violence, the excitement of orgasm and the exultation of possession, all flow together, can easily overwhelm erotic pleasure. Today, when what were once called 'perversions' are the normal fare of television channels, video films and internet sites, where small but specialized professions exist for the satisfaction of every sexual excess, the Kamasutra's second project of rescuing the erotic from raw sexuality would find many supporters.
in the present post-moral world, the danger to erotic pleasure is less from the icy frost of morality than from the fierce heat of instinctual desire. The Kamasutra's most valuable insight, then, is that pleasure needs to be cultivated, that in the field of sex, nature requires culture. Culture, in the Kamasutra's sense, the sixty-four arts that need to be learned and so on, requires leisure and means, time and money, none of which was in short supply for the text's primary intended audience, an urban (and urbane) élite consisting of princes and barons, high state officials, and wealthy merchants.
Hub 683
Compare 27
In its pages, we meet leisured gallants who spend hours in personal grooming and teaching their mynah birds and parrots to speak. Their afternoons and evenings are devoted to drinking, music and dance; that is, when they are not busy in talking poetry and engaging in sexual banter with artful courtesans. In its light-hearted eroticism, the Kamasutra is part of a literary climate during the first six centuries of the common era when the erotic was associated with all that was bright, shining, and beautiful in the ordinary world.
The Sanskrit poems and dramas of this period are also characterized by this lightness, an eroticism more hedonist than impassioned. The mood is a playful enjoyment of love's ambiguities, a delighted savouring of its pleasures, and a consummately refined suffering of its sorrows. The poems are cameos yielding glimpses into arresting erotic moments, their intensity enhanced by the accumulation of sensuous detail.
Cycle 684
The aesthetic theory of this period could confidently proclaim that certain emotions such as laziness, violence and disgust do not belong to a depiction of the erotic. The rasa, 'flavour' or 'essence', of sexual love today knows no such limits. Another aspect of the Kamasutra's eroticism is the discovery of the woman as a subject and full participant in sexual life, very much a subject in the erotic field, not a passive recipient of the man's lust.
Women are no longer 'cooked rice'. The text both reflects and fosters the woman's enjoyment of her sexuality. Of the four kinds of preliminary love-play Vatsyayana describes, the woman takes the active part in two.
In one she encircles her lover as a vine encircles a tree, offering and withdrawing her lips for a kiss, driving the man wild with excitement. In the other, familiar from its sculpted representation in the temple friezes of Khajuraho, she rests one of her feet on the man's feet and the other against his thigh. One arm is across his back, and with the other clinging to his shoulder and neck she makes the motion of climbing him as if he was a tree [2.2.15-16].
In the final analysis, though, given the fact that the text was composed by a man primarily for the education of other men, the fostering of a woman's sexual subjectivity is ultimately in the service of an increase in the man's pleasure. The Kamasutra recognizes that a woman who actively enjoys sex will make it much more enjoyable for him. One might speculate that this more active role of the woman in sex was enhanced, if not inspired, by the more active nature of the Goddess in the religious sphere, since the Glorification of the Goddess (Devi-Mahatmya), the earliest Sanskrit text in praise of the Goddess, was composed during this same period.
Flow 685
Women in the Kamasutra are thus presented not only as erotic subjects but as sexual beings with feelings and emotions that a man needs to understand for the full enjoyment of erotic pleasure. Book Three instructs the man on a young girl's need for gentleness in removing her virginal fears and inhibitions. Erotic pleasure demands that the man be pleasing to his partner.
Hub 28
In recommending that the man not approach the woman sexually for the first three nights after marriage, using this time to understand her feelings, win her trust, and arouse her love, Vatsyayana takes a momentous step in the history of Indian sexuality by introducing the notion of love in sex. He even goes so far as to advance the radical notion that the ultimate goal of marriage is to develop love between the couple and thus considers the love-marriage (which the religious texts regarded as ritually 'low' and disapproved of, and which is still a rarity in contemporary Indian society) to be the pre-eminent form of marriage.
The erotic love of the Kamasutra is not of the romantic variety as we know it today, from a tradition born in the twelfth century, in Bedier's Tristan and Isolde in Europe and Nizami's Laila and Majnun in the Islamic world. Its tenderness and affection for the partner is still, largely, in the service of sexual desire. Thus Vatsyayana's detailed instructions to the man on the tender gestures required of him at the end of sex, 'when their passion has ebbed', end with the words, 'Through these and other feelings, the young couple's passion grows again' [2.10.6-13].
Ladder 686
What distinguishes romantic love from the erotic love of the Kamasutra is the pervasive presence in the former of what may be called longing, a willing surrender, adoration and cherishing of the person for whom one lusts. Longing requires an idealization that makes a lover experience the loved one as an infinitely superior being to whom he (in the case of the man) willingly subordinates his desire, to whom he can surrender and obey and thus reverse the accents of the master-servant metaphor of possessive desire.
This is no part of the erotic love we find in the Kamasutra or, for that matter, in the classical literature of that period. In the Sanskrit and Tamil love poems, as in the textbook of erotics, the beloved is a partner who is a source of excitement and delight, enlivening the senses. A lover is to be explored thoroughly, in enormous detail, and therefore is not quickly abandoned.
Compare 687
Yet the inner life or the past and future of a lover are not subjects of entrancement; the impulse is not of fierce monogamy. For most modern readers who have an affinity for the personal and the subjective, this emphasis on love as a depersonalized voluptuous state, while delighting the senses, does not touch the heart. For those whose sensibility has been moulded by romanticism and individualism it is difficult to identify with the impersonal protagonists of the poems.
These are not a particular man or woman but man and woman as such-provided he is handsome, she beautiful, and both young. The face of the heroine, for instance, is always like a moon or lotus flower, eyes like water lilies or those of a fawn. She always stoops slightly from the weight of her full breasts, improbable fleshy flowers of rounded perfection that do not admit even a blade of grass between them.
Hub 688
The waist is slim, with three folds, the thighs round and plump, like the trunk of an elephant or a banyan tree. The navel is deep, the hips heavy. These lyrical yet conventional descriptions of body parts seem to operate like collective fetishes, culturally approved cues for the individual to allow himself to indulge erotic excitement without the risk of surrender so longed for in romantic love.
Cycle 689
Sexual desire does not subside with seeming satiation. Memory as well as the deliciousness of pleasure's ache gnaw further, making for the distress that marks the separation of lovers in erotic love. This sentiment casts only a small shadow on the Kamasutra, where it takes the rather different form of the sufferings of the rejected wife and the anxiety of the not-yet-successful suitor.
The erotic love of the Kamasutra is then a precarious balancing act between the possessiveness of sexual desire and the tenderness of romantic longing, between the disorder of instinctuality and the moral forces of order, between the imperatives of nature and the civilizing attempts of culture. It is a search for harmony in all the opposing forces that constitute human sexuality, a quest often destined to be futile by the very nature of the undertaking. As Vatsyayana remarks: 'When the wheel of sexual ecstasy is in full motion, there is no textbook at all, and no order' [2.2.31].
Flow 690
THE COMMENTARIES In our translation we have drawn upon the earliest Sanskrit commentary, by Yashodhara Indrapada, and the most recent Hindi commentary, by Devadatta Shastri. These commentaries elucidate obscure or difficult parts of the texts, but they also introduce their own points of view. By comparing and contrasting a modern commentator's interpretations with those made centuries ago it is possible to see what kind of attitudes, social mores, moral responses and so on, influence their glosses.
Ladder 691
Moreover, since Yashodhara lived about a millennium after Vatsyayana, he may not always know what was in Vatsyayana's mind, and we have not always taken his advice, though we have always been glad to have it. But Yashodhara usually makes good sense of the text and is, in any case, also an original source, now some seven centuries old. It is fascinating both to know what someone thought about sex then, too, and to contrast what the two authors say, to see how ideas changed over that millennium.
Since the commentary is many times the size of the text, and often tediously technical, we have appended to the translation of Vatsyayana only those portions of Yashodhara that shed light on specific obscurities in the text or that expand that text in interesting ways. But some of Yashodhara's longer glosses break away from the text to present his basic approach and thus may alert the reader to the general bias of his interpretations. Yashodhara loves to divide Vatsyayana's already somewhat taxonomic text into further taxonomies.
Compare 692
Thus, at 1.1.5: 'Creatures exist in three conditions: creation, sustenance, and dissolution. And sustenance is of two sorts: good and bad. The three aims of human life, too, are of two sorts: acceptable and unacceptable.
The acceptable forms are dharma, artha, and kama; the unacceptable, the violation of dharma, loss, and hatred.' And at 2.1.30 he divides a woman's pleasure into two ('the scratching of an itch and the pleasure of melting') and then divides the melting into two ('the flowing and the ejaculation of the seed'). He taxonomizes at some length in his discussion of the nature of kama (at 1.2.11-12). Here is the gist of it: Kama takes two forms, general and particular.
Hub 693
It is the general form that operates under the control of the mind and heart joined with the self, which governs the senses, each in its own appropriate sensation: the ear engages in sound, the skin in touch, the eye in form, the tongue in taste, and the nose in smell. The consciousness of sound and so forth is undergirded by a wish to enjoy the appropriate sensation; that wish is kama. And when the self enjoys a sensation through that wish and experiences pleasure, that pleasure is kama of the general kind.
Particular kama has two forms, primary and secondary. The speech organs, hands, feet, anus, and genitals are organs of action, which perform the acts of speaking, taking, moving about, defecating, and experiencing bliss. Now, a man and a women have an organ in their lower parts, the vagina and so forth, which is actually a part of the sense organ of skin, for touch is the essence of skin, and a certain place on the skin, called the sense organ of the genitals, causes the experience of bliss on the occasion of ejaculation.
Cycle 694
Touching a man on the thigh or calf and so forth, or a woman on the thigh or navel and so forth, is also a particular sensation of touch, but that is not what is meant here, because it is secondary. In fact, this sort of experience is an example of general kama. What, then, makes the experience described here an example of particular kama?
To answer this, Vatsyayana says: 'It bears fruit.' When this experience goes on uninterrupted, there is an ejaculation of semen and a simultaneous pleasure and fruit, namely bliss. The pleasure of erotic arousal is the pleasure that comes when kissing, scratching, biting, and so forth are applied to this place and that, arousing the perception of pleasure in a man and a woman through the power of the imagination of passion.
Flow 695
Here Yashodhara distinguishes between general kama (pleasure) and particular kama (sexual pleasure) and then divides particular kama (sexual pleasure) into two types: primary (involving the sexual organs) and secondary (involving other parts of the body). His assumption that the 'fruit' of kama is pleasure may not be what Vatsyayana has in mind; at 1.5.1, for instance, and elsewhere, Vatsyayana mentions sons as one of the fruits of the right sort of kama. Shastri, too, comments on this discrepancy: The words 'a direct experience of an object of the senses, which bears fruit' in this sutra express a serious mood.
Yashodhara has taken the word 'fruit' to mean the pleasure of kissing, embracing and ejaculation. But it appears to us that Vatsyayana's viewpoint differs from that of Yashodhara. Here it would be proper to understand the birth of able offspring as Vatsyayana's chief goal.
Ladder 696
The Vedas and the Upanishads also express the same intention. [See Atharva Veda 14.2.31, 14.2.32, 14.2.38, 14.1.58, 14.2.36, 14.2.66 and Chandogya Upanishad 2.13.1.] It is thus clear that for the creator of the Kamasutra, the meaning of the fruit of kissing and embracing is the birth of offspring. Shastri seems to speak here with the full weight of morality and social mores behind him.
Where Yashodhara was in many ways apparently freer from social constraints/responsibility, emphasizing the erotic over the reproductive function, Shastri insists on it and finds support in the text. Vatsyayana can be called in to testify on behalf of either of these commentators because he is ambiguous; his text can bear many interpretations, and commentators, as well as other readers, may well interpret it in a way that best suits their personal circumstances Yashodhara then goes on to make further distinctions between basic sex (centred on the woman) and subsidiary sex (centred on things like gardens and garlands); and between public sex (the meeting) and private sex (the act): Both general and particular kama depend upon sex.
Compare 697
There are two sorts of sex, basic and subsidiary. The base of kama is the woman, and the subsidiary limbs are garlands and such things. And so it is said: Kama is pleasure, and its limbs are jewellery, perfumed oils, and garlands.
as well as forest groves, roof-top gardens, the playing of lutes, and wine. Its base is women- unrestrained, beautiful, young, amorous, flirtatious, clever at flattery, drawing to themselves the minds and hearts of men. Basic sex is of two sorts: public and private.
Hub 698
The public sort of sex is characterized by getting together for the sexual act. Subsidiary sex takes place when each of the sense organs, beginning with the mind, is intimately united with the appropriate subsidiary attribute; it is characterized by the close contact between the sense organs and their objects, and is the occasion for a kind of general kama.
Public sex requires a method if one or the other, the man or the woman, has no desire or is closely guarded, or ashamed, or afraid, because he or she is dependent on someone else, so that nothing is happening. And how could private sex, the sexual act, happen without the knowledge of the sixty-four arts of love? The text is the method.
Cycle 699
Even private sex requires a method, for it does not happen without the constant, daily efforts of the man-about-town [1.2.18]. Erotic arousal, for Yashodhara, is therefore primary kama even when it does not involve genital contact, because it imagines genital contact. On the other hand, sex 'in something other than a vagina or in the wrong kind of vagina' (i.e.
self-masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, or bestiality) is not primary kama, not just because it lacks (human) genital contact but because the pleasure does not involve true erotic arousal. Thus, where Vatsyayana's remarks could easily be read on a quite general level of aesthetics (what Yashodhara calls general kama), Yashodhara narrows them down to focus quite specifically on sexual pleasure (particular kama) and, within that category, on genital contact (primary kama), whether real or imagined. Devadatta Shastri's Commentary, the Jaya There are several published commentaries on the Kamasutra in modern Indian languages, including a Bengali translation and commentary published in Calcutta in 1909, a Tamil commentary published in Kumbhakonam in 1924, and a Telugu transcription of Yashodhara's Jayamangala commentary, together with a Telugu commentary and translation, published in Madras in 1924.
Flow 700
Devadatta Shastri's Hindi commentary was published along with his translation of the text in 1964. His explanation (vyakhya), as he preferred to call his composition, reflects a traditionalist understanding of sexuality in contemporary Hindu India. He was a modern traditionalist in the sense that, although he had an old-fashioned Sanskrit education, he was also aware of the currents of Western sociological and psychological thought of his time.
His commentary, he tells us, was written from the viewpoints of spiritual philosophy and modern social science. Born in 1912 in a small village in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Devadatta was orphaned at an early age. In protest against ill treatment by his elder brother, he left home at the age of 12 and entered the Sanskrit College at Rajapur, from which he graduated with the title of Shastri.
Ladder 701
For a short while he was the editor of the Hindi newspaper Hindustan, published from Delhi, before he settled down in Allahabad to the life of a traditional scholar and a Tantric practitioner. He wrote 76 books on the Vedas, Tantras, Puranas and ancient Indian texts of political science. He died in 1982, leaving unfinished a volume on the identity of the author, date, and place of the Kamasutra, which he had announced in his commentary.
We have provided excerpts from his commentary, particularly his expansive summaries of each chapter, as an Appendix. TRANSLATIONS INTO EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Burton et al. It is startling to realize that the Kamasutra, the Indian text best known, at least by name, to European and American readers,58 was hardly known at all by such readers just a hundred years ago and even now is not really known, since the very first English translation, which remains the one most widely used and reused, long out of copyright and in the public domain, does not say what the Sanskrit says.
Compare 702
Hub 703
He left India in 1856, returning only for a brief visit in 1876. Arbuthnot (whom Burton used to call 'Bunnie') was a retired Indian civil servant who had been born near Bombay in 1833 and, after going to Europe for his education, returned to India. Burton and Arbuthnot met either in India in 1853-4 or on Arbuthnot's furlough to London in 1859-60.
Cycle 704
In the preface to their translation of the Kamasutra, they wrote: It may be interesting to some persons to learn how it came about that Vatsyayana was first brought to light and translated into the English language. While translating with the pandits the 'Anunga Runga, or the stage of love', reference was frequently found to be made to one Vatsya. The sage Vatsya was of this opinion, or of that opinion.
Flow 705
(The Sanskrit text was first published by Pandit Durgaprasad in Bombay only in 1891, eight years after the translation.67) Why had Burton and Arbuthnot never heard of it, when they had heard of the lesser, and much later, work, the Anangaranga? There are several likely reasons. The Anangaranga was already far better known in India than the Kamasutra because it was a kind of Kamasutra lite, much shorter68 and written in much more accessible Sanskrit.
Ladder 706
(The New York Times entitled Edward Hower's review of Sudhir Kakar's novel about Vatsyayana, 'Assume the Position', and Sanjeev Bhaskar's 2001 sex odyssey, via television documentary, about the Kamasutra is entitled Position Impossible.) The real Kamasutra, by contrast, is not the sort of book to read in bed while drinking heavily, let alone holding the book with one hand in order to keep the other free. In fact, it is likely that other, better-read Sanskritists were well aware of the existence of the Kamasutra and might not have been quite so surprised as Burton was to hear 'Vatsya's' name dropped.
Some British scholars may actually have known the text or, at the very least, have come across references to it in the erotic poetry that had been translated from the very start of the British colonial awareness of India (beginning with Kalidasa's Shakuntala, translated by Sir William Jones in 1789, five years before he translated Manu). Burton and Arbuthnot were not great Sanskrit scholars. Burton had buckled his swash through a great deal of 'Oriental' erotica but was not likely to have browsed through a lot of Sanskrit court poetry; Arbuthnot wrote three short travel books but never published anything else about Sanskrit literature.
Compare 707
Hub 708
Arbuthnot put up the money for the printing. The Kama Shastra Society later published other erotica that Burton translated from the Arabic, such as The Perfumed Garden, as well as Burton's great masterpiece, The Arabian Nights. But that is another story.
Cycle 709
For the Burton translation is seriously flawed. A detailed criticism of it, line by line, would be neither worth while nor possible, since without a precise knowledge of the text they used, one cannot say with any certainty where they deviated from that text. Nor can we know at what point along the line of transmission such slips occurred: with one of the original manuscripts, the choice of a particular reading among manuscripts, either of the two Indian pandits, Arbuthnot, or Burton.
But there is every reason to believe that they used a text very like the one that was published just a few years later and that agrees in general with all the texts published since, and in broad terms it is easy enough to see what they left out, put in, and mistranslated. For instance, at 4.1.19-21 we have translated the text like this: Mildly offended by the man's infidelities, she does not accuse him too much, but she scolds him with abusive language when he is alone or among friends.
Flow 710
She does not, however, use love-sorcery worked with roots, for, Gonardiya says, 'Nothing destroys trust like that.' The Burton translation here reads: In the event of any misconduct on the part of her husband, she should not blame him excessively, though she be a little displeased. She should not use abusive language towards him, but rebuke him with conciliatory words, whether he be in the company of friends or alone. Moreover, she should not be a scold, for, says Gonardiya, 'there is no cause of dislike on the part of a husband so great as this characteristic in a wife.' What is wrong with this picture?
Ladder 711
But the most serious problem is the word 'not' that negates the wife's right to use abusive language against her straying husband, a denial only somewhat qualified by the added phrase, 'rebuke him with conciliatory words.' Was this an innocent error (and if so, whose?), or does it reflect a sexist bias (again, whose?)? There are also pervasive patterns of mistranslation. The Burton translation has no commentary and only a few notes, but there is little need for them, for they are incorporated in the text.
Compare 712
Hub 713
Cycle 714
In fact, the Burton translation is most accurate in the sections of Book Two that deal with the sexual positions, the topic for which the book became famous. Can this relative accuracy be explained by the fact that this is the part of the book most closely glossed by the Anangaranga? Or was it because this was what Burton cared about most, or worked on most carefully?
Or was it because sex is easier to understand, being universal, than the cultural information that is specific to India? For the book is, really, about India after all, and this area, the field of South Asian cultural assumptions built into the text, is where the Burton translation goes wrong most often. Other Translations Several other English translations have been published in India, some of them based on the Burton translation, some apparently original works, but these are not generally available outside India, nor is any of them a significant improvement on the Burton translation.
Flow 715
Ladder 716
The basic division of labour was that Wendy Doniger prepared a draft of the Sanskrit text, relevant parts of the Sanskrit commentary, and parts of the explanatory notes; Sudhir Kakar prepared a draft of the relevant parts of the Hindi commentary, shed Hindi insight on Sanskrit dilemmas, and supplied other parts of the explanatory notes.
Compare 717
In general, we have left the text plain and given the reader the commentator's reading as one among possible options. Occasionally, however, we did have to expand a pronoun in the text with a noun, sometimes a noun taken from the commentary. Vatsyayana's non-sexist language,100 for example, here poses a challenge for the English translation.
Hub 718
Though the text often uses subjunctive or optative forms, we have generally translated the verbs in the indicative, which conveys the flavour of a novel or a play better than the subjunctive appropriate to a manual of instruction. (Burton usually uses an optative 'should', making the text sound moralistic where it is descriptive.) For Vatsyayana's 'should' is often lodged on an assumption of 'is', as if to say, 'If you decide to do this, you should do it like this … but you may not want to do it at all.' We translated every Sanskrit word into English (if you count Brahmin as an English word), and this decision invariably involved some compromises.
Cycle 719
The English names of the more obscure plants, flowers, and drugs are very approximate indeed; as in a game of telephone, we moved first from the Sanskrit to Monier-Williams's Latin approximation, and then, since the rough Latin equivalents would hardly have any more meaning for most readers than the Sanskrit originals, we consulted botanical dictionaries to find English names by which the plants were known. The slippage at both points of transition effectively doubled the margin of error, giving the reader only an impressionistic, rough idea of the substances involved.
But we thought that even that blur was preferable to the only alternative, which was to leave the words in incomprehensible Sanskrit or Latin. (Readers who want to know the original Sanskrit terms can find them in the Glossary.) We therefore warn the reader that ointments made following the recipes in this book will probably not have the same effects that were achieved by people who used the Sanskrit recipes in ancient India. Sexually Explicit Vocabulary A basic and pervasive problem was the translation of the words for sex, because, just as Eskimos are (apocryphally, apparently) said to have many more words for snow than we Anglos do, Sanskrit certainly has far more words for sex.
Flow 720
The challenge is compounded by English's lack of a register corresponding to the matter-of-fact terminology of the Sanskrit text, a register midway between the obscene and the medical. The obscene will jar the English-speaking reader in an inappropriate way, and in any case, in this post-rap-and-David-Mamet age, the people who do use the word 'fuck' seldom use it to designate the sexual act. The medical is equally inappropriate for this imaginative and elegant text; though the use of 'glans' and 'foreskin' was unavoidable in the highly explicit description of fellatio, we have relegated the terms 'penis' and 'vagina' to the commentaries (and to Book Seven, which has a very different tone from the rest of the book); in the text proper, we have used terms like 'pelvis', 'sexual organ', or 'between the legs'.
The Kamasutra itself notes [2.1.32] that there are numerous synonyms for both the sexual act and sexual pleasure. This is also true, if less true, of English, and in both languages, a single term may have different connotations. We hope that the text's own awareness of this problem justifies our practice of, on the one hand, translating several different Sanskrit nouns and verbs by one English word (such as 'sex' or 'pleasure') and, on the other hand, using several different English words to translate a single Sanskrit word (such as priti).
Ladder 721
For Sanskrit intermingles concepts of passion, love, and pleasure, which English tends to hold separate. Moreover, just as dharma is context-sensitive in Manu, requiring many different translations, so the words for sex/love/passion are context-sensitive in the Kamasutra, requiring many different English words. Kama sometimes signifies 'pleasure', sometimes 'desire', sometimes 'a sexual affair', sometimes 'sexual pleasure', and sometimes just 'sex', thus overlapping with other terms such as priti (also pleasure, but also, sometimes, love, satisfaction, erotic joy, affection, or orgasm), anuraga (love for someone) and rata (the sexual act, sexual pleasure, or climax).
We have generally used the English terms 'sex' or 'making love' or, sometimes, 'in bed', to translate several different Sanskrit terms for the sexual act (primarily surata and samprayoga). Abhiyoga means 'making advances' or, occasionally, 'wooing'; the person who does it is a 'suitor'. Sanskrit employs the same basic verb [yunj, 'to join', cognate with the English 'yoke' and 'yoga'] for both this word and the word for sex (samprayoga), but with the preposition 'to' [abhi] for preliminary wooing, and with the prepositions 'with' and 'for' [sam and pra] for the actual physical act.
Compare 722
(A related form, pra-yoga, means 'practices' or 'techniques' and as a gerundive-prayogya-denotes the woman or man whom someone intends to enjoy sexually, which we have translated as 'the man [or woman] she [or he] wants'.) Bhava sometimes means 'emotion', sometimes 'orgasm', sometimes 'true feelings' or 'inclination'; occasionally (as in the title of 2.1 and in 2.1.33) it replaces vega, 'sexual energy'. Sukha can mean 'happiness', or 'sensual pleasure', or 'bliss', depending on the context. The verb ranj and its derivatives (raga, anuraga, etc.) sometimes means 'to experience pleasure' and sometimes 'to fall in love' or, in the causative, 'to give pleasure' or 'to make someone fall in love' or 'to charm'; sometimes [as in 7.2.1], it is best approximated by the old-fashioned euphemism, 'to pleasure'.
Contemporary Pleasures of the Text In India as in Europe, once the Kamasutra became available in English, it was first regarded as pornography masquerading as Orientalism masquerading as literature and then became the object of prurient mockery and satire. Even the 1966 (Berkeley) edition of the Burton translation proclaims, on its cover, 'Still shocking after 15 centuries! Now complete and unexpurgated!' Once available only 'for private circulation' or 'for medical use', the Burton translation is now available online.
Hub 723
In India it is the name of a condom. In America it is the name of a wristwatch that displays a different position every hour. The Red Envelope company advertises a 'Kama Sutra Pleasure Box' and 'Kama Sutra Weekender Kit', collections of oils and creams packaged in containers decorated with quasi-Hindu paintings of embracing couples.
Cycle 724
Flow 725
What use is the Kamasutra? In our time, when sexually explicit novels, films, and instruction manuals are available everywhere, the parts of the Kamasutra that have previously been most useful are now the least useful: the positions described in Book Two. Today they can inspire only a few reactions: 'I already do that' or 'I've thought of doing that' or 'I never thought of that, and wouldn't want to try it now' or 'I never thought of doing that, and I think I'll try it now.' Book Seven, too, is hardly practical.
Ladder 726
It evokes the cigarette foreplay of Bogart and Bacall in To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep or the cigarette sublimation shared by Bette Davis and Paul Heinreid in Now Voyager. Betel, the life in the harem, the world of courtesans-these parts of the text make you think, 'How very different these people are from us.' But then you come across the passage in which the boy teases the girl when they are swimming together, diving down and coming up near her, touching her, and then diving down again [3.4.6], and you are in familiar personal territory.
Compare 727
You must surely also recognize the man who tells the woman on whom he's set his sights 'about an erotic dream, pretending that it was about another woman' [3.4.9], and the woman who does the same thing [5.4.54]. Sometimes the unfamiliar and the familiar are cheek by jowl; the culture-specific list of women the wife must not associate with (including a Buddhist nun and a magician who uses love-sorcery worked with roots [4.1.9]) is followed in the very next passage by the woman who is cooking for her man and finds out, 'This is what he likes, this is what he hates, this is good for him, this is bad for him', a consideration that surely resonates with many contemporary anglophone readers.
One part of the text that speaks to the modern reader is Book Five, on the seduction of other men's wives. In the earlier meditations on reasons to do this [1.5], there are a few details, such as the commission to kill the king's enemy, that do not survive the cross-cultural journey. But for the most part, this passage brilliantly represents the self-justifying arguments of the adulterer, and of the adulterous wife, in ways that rival the psychologizing of John Updike and Gustave Flaubert.
Hub 728
Book Six has an even more basic relevance for modern women and men, since this is the one section of the text that imagines both men and women as more or less free agents, constrained by the man's lust and the woman's need for money, it is true, but not by an assumption of the natural passivity of the woman (an assumption that colours the rest of the text and is made explicit at 2.1.26). In Book Six the woman's thoughts on such subjects as how to get a lover, how to get rid of him, or how to tell when he is cooling toward her, ring remarkably true in the twenty-first century.
Vatsyayana himself often calls the courtesan here 'the woman', and her lover 'the man', and when he does so Yashodhara remarks (at 6.1.12-13, for instance) that these passages often have a more general application. This may mean that they apply to any relationship in which the woman may have the upper hand, not merely the particular case of the courtesan. This part of the text is not just about sex for money, but about sex for love, particularly for people who are free to choose their partners; which means it is for us.
Cycle 729
The Kamasutra has attained its classic status because it is at bottom about essential, unchangeable human attributes-lust, love, shyness, rejection, seduction, manipulation-and it is fascinating for us to see ourselves mirrored in it even as we learn deeply intimate things about a culture that could well be described as long ago and in a galaxy far away.
ONE Summary of the Text [1]
1WE bow to religion, power, and pleasure, 2because they are the subject of this text,* 3and to the scholars who made known the mutual agreement among the three, 4because those subjects are integral to the text. 5For when the Creator emitted his creatures, he first composed, in a hundred thousand chapters, the means of achieving the three aims of human life, which is the key link with what sustains those creatures.
Cycle 29
[I] Summary of the Text
1WE bow to religion, power, and pleasure, 2because they are the subject of this text,* 3and to the scholars who made known the mutual agreement among the three, 4because those subjects are integral to the text. 5For when the Creator emitted his creatures, he first composed, in a hundred thousand chapters, the means of achieving the three aims of human life, which is the key link with what sustains those creatures. 6Manu* the son of the Self-born One made one part of this into a separate work about religion, 7Bri-haspati* made one about power, 8and Nandin, the servant of the Great God Shiva, made a separate work of a thousand chapters, the Kamasutra, 9which Shvetaketu Auddalaki cut down to five hundred chapters.
Flow 730
10And then Babhravya* of Panchala cut this down further to a hundred and fifty chapters in the following seven parts: General Observations, Sex, Virgins, Wives, Other Men's Wives, Courtesans, and Erotic Esoterica. 11 Dattaka made a separate book out of the sixth part of this work, about courtesans, which the courtesans de luxe of Pataliputra* commissioned. 12In response to this, Charayana made a separate book about general observations, Suvarnanabha about sex, Ghotakamukha about virgins, Gonardiya about wives, Gonikaputra about other men's wives, and Kuchumara about erotic esoterica.
13When many scholars had divided it into fragments in this way, the text was almost destroyed. 14Because the amputated limbs of the text that Dattaka and the others divided are just parts of the whole, and because Babhravya's text is so long that it is hard to study, Vatsyayana condensed the entire subject matter into a small volume to make this Kamasutra. 15 Here is an overview of its sections and chapters:* 16 The first book, on General Observations, has five sections in five chapters: summary of the text, the means of achieving the three aims of human life, exposition of the arts, the lifestyle of the man-about-town,* and the work of the man's male helpers and messengers.
Ladder 731
17 The second book, on Sex, has seventeen sections in ten chapters: sexual typology according to size, endurance, and temperament, types of love, ways of embracing, procedures of kissing, types of scratching with the nails, ways of biting, customs of women from different regions, varieties of sexual positions, unusual sexual acts, modes of slapping and the accompanying moaning, the woman playing the man's part, a man's sexual strokes, oral sex, the start and finish of sex, different kinds of sex, and lovers' quarrels. 18 The third book, on Virgins, has nine sections in five chapters: courting the girl, making alliances, winning a virgin's trust, making advances to a young girl, interpreting her gestures and signals, the advances that a man makes on his own, the advances that a virgin makes to the man she wants, the advances that win a virgin, and devious devices for weddings.
Compare 732
19 The fourth book, on Wives, has eight sections in two chapters: the life of an only wife, her behaviour during his absence, the senior wife, the junior wife, the second-hand woman, the wife unlucky in love, women of the harem, and a man's management of many women. 20 The fifth book, on Other Men's Wives, has ten sections in six chapters: on the characteristic natures of women and men,* causes of resistance, men who are successful with women, women who can be won without effort, ways of becoming intimate, making advances, testing her feelings, the duties of a female messenger, the sex life of a man in power, the life of the women of the harem, and the guarding of wives.
21 The sixth book, on Courtesans, has twelve sections in six chapters: deciding on an eligible lover, reasons for taking a lover, getting a lover, giving the beloved what he wants, ways to get money from him, signs that his passion is cooling, getting him back when his passion has cooled, ways to get rid of him, getting back together with a discarded lover, weighing different kinds of profits, calculating gains and losses, consequences and doubts, and types of courtesans. 22 The seventh book, on Erotic Esoterica, has six sections in two chapters: making luck in love, putting someone in your power, stimulants for virility, rekindling exhausted passion, methods of increasing the size of the male organ, and unusual techniques.
Hub 733
23 Thus the text has sixty-four sections, in thirty-six chapters, in seven books, consisting of 1,250 passages.* That is the summary of the text. 24 Now that it has been summarized briefly, it will be described in detail, since wise men of the world like to have things told in both a contracted and an expanded form.
Cycle 734
Flow 30
Ladder 31
Compare 32
Hub 33
Cycle 34
Flow 35
Ladder 36
TWO The Means of Achieving the Three Aims of Human Life [2]
1 A man's lifespan is said to be a full hundred years.* By dividing his time, he cultivates the three aims in such a way that they enhance rather than interfere with each other. 2Childhood is the time to acquire knowledge and other kinds of power,* 3the prime of youth is for pleasure, 4and old age is for religion and release.5 Or, because the lifespan is uncertain, a man pursues these aims as the opportunity arises, 6but he should remain celibate until he has acquired knowledge. 7 Religion consists in engaging, as the texts decree, in sacrifice and other such actions that are disengaged from material life, because they are not of this world and their results are invisible; and in refraining, as the texts decree, from eating meat and other such actions that are engaged in material life, because they are of this world and their results are visible.* 8A man learns about it from sacred scripture* and from associating with people who know about religion.
Compare 37
[2] The Means of Achieving the Three Aims of Human Life
1 A man's lifespan is said to be a full hundred years.* By dividing his time, he cultivates the three aims in such a way that they enhance rather than interfere with each other. 2Childhood is the time to acquire knowledge and other kinds of power,* 3the prime of youth is for pleasure, 4and old age is for religion and release.5 Or, because the lifespan is uncertain, a man pursues these aims as the opportunity arises, 6but he should remain celibate until he has acquired knowledge. 7 Religion consists in engaging, as the texts decree, in sacrifice and other such actions that are disengaged from material life, because they are not of this world and their results are invisible; and in refraining, as the texts decree, from eating meat and other such actions that are engaged in material life, because they are of this world and their results are visible.* 8A man learns about it from sacred scripture* and from associating with people who know about religion.
Flow 735
9Power, in the form of wealth, consists in acquiring knowledge, land, gold, cattle, grain, household goods and furniture, friends, and so forth, and increasing what has been acquired. 10A man learns about it from 'The Tasks of the Superintendent',* and from merchants who know about trades and markets. 11Pleasure, in general, consists in engaging the ear, skin, eye, tongue, and nose each in its own appropriate sensation, all under the control of the mind and heart driven by the conscious self.
12Pleasure in its primary form, however, is a direct experience of an object of the senses, which bears fruit and is permeated by the sensual pleasure of erotic arousal that results from the particular sensation of touch.* 13A man learns about pleasure from the Kamasutra and from associating with the circle of men-about-town. 14 When these three aims-religion, power, and pleasure-compete, each is more important than the one that follows. 15But power, in the form of wealth, is the most important goal for a king-because it is the basis of social life-and for a courtesan.* Those are the means of achieving the three aims.
Ladder 736
16 Scholars say:* 'It is appropriate to have a text about religion, because it concerns matters not of this world, and to have one about power, because that is achieved only when the groundwork is laid by special methods, which one learns from a text. 17But since even animals manage sex by themselves, and since it goes on all the time, it should not have to be handled with the help of a text.' 18Vatsyayana says: Because a man and a woman depend upon one another in sex, it requires a method, 19and this method is learned from the Kamasutra.
Compare 737
20 The mating of animals, by contrast, is not based upon any method: because they are not fenced in, they mate only when the females are in their fertile season and until they achieve their goal, and they act without thinking about it first. 21 Materialists say:* 'People should not perform religious acts, for their results are in the world to come and that is doubtful. 22Who but a fool would take what is in his own hand and put it in someone else's hand?
23 Better a pigeon today than a peacock tomorrow, and 24 "Better a copper coin that is certain than a gold coin that is doubtful."' 25 Vatsyayana says: People should perform religious acts, because the text cannot be doubted; because, sometimes, black magic and curses are seen to bear fruit; because the constellations, moon, sun, stars, and the circle of the planets are seen to act for the sake of the world as if they thought about it first; because social life is marked by the stability of the system of the four classes and four stages of life; and because people are seen to cast away a seed in their hand for the sake of a crop in the future. 26 Fatalists say:* 'People should not act to gain power and wealth, for even when these are energetically pursued they are not always achieved, while even when they are not sought at all, they may come by chance.
Hub 738
27"It all happens as fate decrees", people say, 28for fate is what leads men to gain and loss, victory and defeat, happiness and unhappiness. 29 Fate made Bali into
Hub 38
an Indra, king of the gods,
and fate hurled Bali back down, and fate is what will make him an Indra again.'* 30 Vatsyayana says: All undertakings are based upon a method, because they presuppose a man's exertions. 31Even wealth and power that must inevitably arise in the future presuppose a method. Nothing good happens to a man who does nothing.
32 Pragmatists say:* 'People should not indulge in pleasures, for they are an obstacle to both religion and power, which are more important, and to other good people. They make a man associate with worthless people and undertake bad projects; they make him impure, a man with no future, 33as well as careless, lightweight, untrustworthy and unacceptable. 34And it is said that many men in the thrall of desire were destroyed, even when accompanied by their troops.
Cycle 739
35For instance, when the Bhoja king named Dandakya* was aroused by a Brahmin's daughter, desire destroyed him, along with his relatives and his kingdom. 36And Indra the king of the gods with Ahalya, the super-powerful Kichaka with Draupadi, Ravana with Sita, and many others afterwards were seen to fall into the thrall of desire and were destroyed.' 37Vatsyayana says: Pleasures are a means of sustaining the body, just like food, and they are rewards for religion and power. 38But people must be aware of the flaws in pleasures, flaws that are like diseases.* For people do not stop preparing the cooking pots because they think, 'There are beggars', nor do they stop planting barley because they think, 'There are deer.'* 39And there are verses about this: A man who serves power, and pleasure, and religion in this way wins endless happiness that has no thorns, in this world and the next.
40 Knowledgeable people undertake a project that does not make them worry, 'What will happen in the next world?' Or 'Is this a pleasure that will not erode my power?' 41 Undertake any project that might achieve the three aims of life, or two, or even just one, but not one that achieves one at the cost of the other two.
Cycle 39
Flow 40
Ladder 41
Compare 42
Hub 43
Cycle 44
THREE Exposition of the Arts [3]
1 A man should study the Kamasutra and its subsidiary sciences as long as this does not interfere with the time devoted to religion and power and their subsidiary sciences. 2A woman should do this before she reaches the prime of her youth, and she should continue when she has been given away, if her husband wishes it.
Flow 45
[3] Exposition of the Arts
1 A man should study the Kamasutra and its subsidiary sciences as long as this does not interfere with the time devoted to religion and power and their subsidiary sciences. 2A woman should do this before she reaches the prime of her youth, and she should continue when she has been given away, if her husband wishes it. 3 Scholars say: 'Since females cannot grasp texts, it is useless to teach women this text.' 4Vatsyayana says: But women understand the practice, and the practice is based on the text.* 5This applies beyond this specific subject of the Kamasutra, for throughout the world, in all subjects, there are only a few people who know the text, but the practice is within the range of everyone.
Flow 740
6And a text, however far removed, is the ultimate source of the practice. 7'Grammar is a science', people say. Yet the sacrificial priests, who are no grammarians, know how to gloss the words in the sacrificial prayers.* 8'Astronomy is a science', they say.
But ordinary people perform the rituals on the days when the skies are auspicious. 9And people know how to ride horses and elephants without studying the texts about horses and elephants. 10In the same way, even citizens far away from the king do not step across the moral line that he sets.
Ladder 741
The case of women learning the Kamasutra is like those examples. 11 And there are also women whose understanding has been sharpened by the text: courtesans de luxe and the daughters of kings and ministers of state. 12A woman should therefore learn the techniques and the text, or at least one part of it, from a trusted person, in private.
Compare 742
13And alone, in private, a virgin should practise the sixty-four techniques that take practice. 14But the people qualified to teach a virgin are: a foster-sister who grew up with her and has already made love with a man; or a girlfriend* who has had the same experience and with whom she can converse without risk; one of her mother's sisters who is her age; an old servant woman who is trusted and can take that aunt's place; a female renunciant with whom she has previously been intimate; and her own sister, if that sister takes her into her confidence about her own love-making.
15 The sixty-four fine arts that should be studied along with the Kamasutra are: singing; playing musical instruments; dancing; painting; cutting leaves into shapes; making lines on the floor with rice-powder and flowers; arranging flowers; colouring the teeth, clothes, and limbs; making jewelled floors; preparing beds; making music on the rims of glasses of water; playing water sports; unusual techniques; making garlands and stringing necklaces; making diadems and headbands; making costumes; making various earrings; mixing perfumes; putting on jewellery; doing conjuring tricks; practising sorcery; sleight of hand; preparing various forms of vegetables, soups, and other things to eat; preparing wines, fruit juices, and other things to drink; needlework; weaving; playing the lute and the drum;* telling jokes and riddles; completing words; reciting difficult words; reading aloud; staging plays and dialogues; completing verses; making things out of cloth, wood, and cane; woodworking; carpentry; architecture; the ability to test gold and silver; metallurgy; knowledge of the colour and form of jewels; skill at nurturing trees; knowledge of ram-fights, cock-fights, and quail-fights; teaching parrots and mynah birds to talk; skill at rubbing, massaging, and hairdressing; the ability to speak in sign language; understanding languages made to seem foreign; knowledge of local dialects; skill at making flower carts; knowledge of omens; alphabets for use in making magical diagrams; alphabets for memorizing; group recitation; improvising poetry; dictionaries and thesauruses; knowledge of metre; literary work; the art of impersonation; the art of using clothes for disguise; special forms of gambling; the game of dice; children's games; etiquette; the science of strategy; and the cultivation of athletic skills. (16 The sixty-four arts* of love that come from Babhravya of Panchala are different.
Hub 743
We will return to them and speak of their techniques in the discussion of sex, for they are an essential element of pleasure.) 17 A courtesan* who distinguishes herself in these arts and who has a good nature, beauty, and good qualities, wins the title of Courtesan de Luxe and a place in the public assembly. 18 The king always honours her, and virtuous people praise her. Men seek her, approach her for sex, and she is a standard for other courtesans to strive for.
Cycle 744
19 The daughter of a king or of a minister of state, if she knows the techniques, can keep her husband in her power even if he has a thousand women in his harem. 20 And if she is separated from her husband and in dire straits, even in a foreign land, by means of these sciences she can live quite happily. 21 A man who is accomplished in these arts, eloquent, and skilled at flattery, even if he is not well known, finds the way to women's hearts right away.
Ladder 46
22 Luck in love* comes from learning the arts; but a man should consider the right time and place before he uses, or does not use, a technique.
Compare 47
Hub 48
Cycle 49
Flow 50
Ladder 51
Compare 52
FOUR The Lifestyle of the Man-about-town [4]
1 When a man has become educated, he enters the householder stage of life and begins the lifestyle of a man-about-town,* using the money that he has inherited, on the one hand, or obtained from gifts, conquest, trade, or wages, on the other, or from both. 2He settles down in a city, a capital city, a market town, or some large gathering where there are good people, or wherever he has to stay to make a living.
Hub 53
[4] The Lifestyle of the Man-about-town
1 When a man has become educated, he enters the householder stage of life and begins the lifestyle of a man-about-town,* using the money that he has inherited, on the one hand, or obtained from gifts, conquest, trade, or wages, on the other, or from both. 2He settles down in a city, a capital city, a market town, or some large gathering where there are good people, or wherever he has to stay to make a living. 3And there he makes his home in a house near water, with an orchard, separate servant quarters, and two bedrooms.
Flow 745
4This is how the house is furnished: In the outer bedroom there is a bed, low in the middle and very soft, with pillows on both sides and a white top sheet. (There is also a couch.) At the head of the bed there is a grass mat and an altar, on which are placed the oils and garlands left over from the night, a pot of beeswax, a vial of perfume, some bark from a lemon tree, and betel.* On the floor, a spittoon.
A lute, hanging from an ivory tusk; a board to draw or paint on, and a box of pencils. Some book or other, and garlands of amaranth flowers. On the floor, not too far away, a round bed with a pillow for the head.
Ladder 746
A board for dice and a board for gambling. Outside, cages of pet birds. And, set aside, a place for carpentry or woodworking and for other games.
And he continually cleans the sweat from his armpits. 7In the morning and afternoon he eats; 'In the evening, too', says Charayana.
8After eating, he passes the time teaching his parrots and mynah birds to speak; goes to quail-fights, cock-fights, and ram-fights; engages in various arts and games; and passes the time with his libertine, pander, and clown.* And he takes a nap. 9In the late afternoon, he gets dressed up and goes to salons to amuse himself. 10 And in the evening, there is music and singing.
Compare 747
After that, on the bed in a bedroom carefully decorated and perfumed by sweet-smelling incense, he and his friends await the women who are slipping out for a rendezvous with them. 11He sends female messengers* for them or goes to get them himself. 12And when the women arrive, he and his friends greet them with gentle conversation and courtesies that charm the mind and heart.
Cycle 54
13If rain has soaked the clothing of women who have slipped out for a rendez-vous in bad weather, he changes their clothes himself, or gets some of his friends to serve them. That is what he does by day and night. 14 He amuses himself by going to festivals, salons, drinking parties, picnics, and group games.
15 On a specified day at half moon or full moon, there is always an assembly of invited guests at the temple of the goddess Sarasvati.* 16Visiting players also come and give an audition for them, and on the second day they are rewarded with a fixed fee. Then they may give a performance or be dismissed, according to their reception. In case of a disaster or an occasion for celebration, they substitute for one another.
17They honour and protect visitors who join them. Those are the customs of theatrical companies. 18The festivals dedicated to this or that particular deity can be described in this same way, taking into consideration the different circumstances.
Hub 748
19 A salon takes place when people of similar knowledge, intelligence, character, wealth, and age sit together in the house of a courtesan, or in a place of assembly, or in the dwelling-place of some man, and engage in appropriate conversation with courtesans. 20There they exchange thoughts about poems or works of art, 21and in the course of that they praise brilliant women whom everyone likes, and they bring in women who love all men equally.* 22They have drinking parties at one another's houses.
23There the courtesans get the men to drink, and drink after them, wine made from honey, grapes, other fruits, or sugar, with various sorts of salt, fruit, greens, vegetables, and bitter, spicy, and sour foods. 24 Picnics can be described in this same way. 25Early in the morning, men dress with care and go out on horseback, attended by servants and accompanied by courtesans.
They enjoy the daytime events there and spend the time at cock-fights, gambling, theatrical spectacles, and appropriate activities, and then in the afternoon they go back again in the same way, taking with them souvenirs of the pleasures of the picnic. 26And in the same way, in the summer, people enjoy water sports, in pools built to keep out crocodiles. 27 Then there are Goblin Night, Full Moon Vigil, and the Spring Festival.
Cycle 749
28The group games are breaking open mangoes, eating roasted grains, eating lotus stems, playing with new leaves, water-fights, doing imitations with puppets, playing the 'one silk-cotton tree' game, and mock-fighting with the red-orange flowers of the 'morningstar' tree.* They play at these various widespread and local games, different from those of the common people. 29A single man, if he can afford it, 30a courtesan de luxe, and the woman with her girlfriends and men-about-town can also do what has been described here.
Flow 55
31 But the man called a libertine* has no wealth, indeed has nothing but his body; his only possessions are his collapsible chair, his soap, and his astringent. He comes from an honourable part of the country and is skilled in the arts, and by teaching them he introduces himself into society and into the sort of gatherings frequented by courtesans. 32The man called a pander,* by contrast, has used up his wealth but has good qualities and is married.
Well respected among courtesans and society people, he lives off them. 33But the man called a clown,* or a comedian, has just a fragmentary knowledge of the arts. He is a prankster and a trusted friend.
Flow 750
34These are the 'advisers' whom courtesans and men-about-town employ in their battles and truces.* 35Included among these are beggar women,* women with shaved heads, low-caste women, and old courtesans de luxe, sophisticated in the arts. 36 A man who lives in a village stirs up his clever and curious relatives, describing to them the lifestyle of the set of men-about-town and inspiring their longing for that life. He emulates it himself, organizes gatherings, and charms the people by his contact with them.
He ingratiates himself with them by helping them in their projects and does favours for them. That is the lifestyle of the man-about-town. 37 The man who tells stories in society, neither too much in Sanskrit nor too much in the local dialect,* becomes highly regarded in the social world.
Ladder 751
38 A wise man will not descend to a society that people hate, or one that slips out of control or is malicious to others. 39 An educated man succeeds in society when he moves with a set of people who incline to the ways of the world and regard playing as their one and only concern.
Ladder 56
Compare 57
Hub 58
Cycle 59
Flow 60
FIVE Reasons for Taking Another Man’s Wife
1 Pleasure enjoyed according to the texts, with a woman who is of the man's own class, and who has not been with another man before, is a means of getting sons, a good reputation, and social acceptance. 2But with women of higher classes or with women married to other men, pleasure will achieve none of these things, and it is forbidden.
Ladder 61
Reasons for Taking Another Man’s Wife
1 Pleasure enjoyed according to the texts, with a woman who is of the man's own class, and who has not been with another man before, is a means of getting sons, a good reputation, and social acceptance. 2But with women of higher classes or with women married to other men, pleasure will achieve none of these things, and it is forbidden. And it is neither encouraged nor forbidden with courtesans, second-hand women, and women of lower classes who have not been expelled from society, because the only purpose of such liaisons is pleasure.* 3In this respect, women who may be lovers* are of three sorts: virgins, second-hand women, and courtesans.
Compare 752
4 Gonikaputra says: 'There is a fourth sort of woman who may be a lover: under the pressure of some other reason, a woman who aids his cause may become his lover, even if she is married to another man.' 5The man may think, 'This is a loose woman. 6She has already ruined her virtue with many other men. Even though she is of a class higher than mine, I can go to her as I would go to a courtesan, without offending against religion.
Hub 753
And since I am useless, I have exhausted all means of making a living. Such as I am, I will get a lot of money from her in this way, with very little trouble.' 13Or, 'This woman is madly in love with me and knows all my weaknesses. If I reject her, she will ruin me by publicly exposing my faults; 14or she will accuse me of some fault which I do not in fact have, but which will be easy to believe of me and hard to clear myself of, and this will be the ruin of me; 15or she will cause a break between me and her husband, who is a man with a future and under her control, and she will get him to join my enemies; 16or she herself will become intimate with them.' Or, 'This woman's husband is the seducer of the women of my harem; I will pay him back for that by seducing his wives, too.' 17Or, 'By the king's command, I will kill his enemy, who is hiding inside.' 18'Another woman, whose desire I desire, is in the power of this woman.
Cycle 754
I will get to that one by using this one as a bridge.' 19 Or, 'This woman will get me an unattainable virgin, rich and beautiful, who depends on her.' 20Or, 'My enemy is united with this woman's husband.
Those are the reasons for taking another man's wife. 22 Charayana says: 'For these very reasons, there is also a fifth woman who can be a lover, a widow who is kept by a minister of state or by the king and comes to him only part of the time, or some other widow who can accomplish a man's purposes.' 23Suvarnanabha says: 'There is a sixth: a woman just like that, who is a wandering ascetic.'* 24Ghotakamukha says: 'There is a seventh: a servant woman, or the daughter of a courtesan de luxe, who has not had a man before.' 25Gonardiya says: 'A young woman of good family who is no longer a child is an eighth, because she is treated differently.' 26Vatsyayana says: These women* should be counted with the others, because there is no difference in the purposes for which they are used.
Flow 755
And so there are just four sorts of women who can be lovers. 27Some people say: 'The third nature is a fifth sort of woman who can be a lover, because she is different.'* 28 Now, there is one kind of male lover, and everyone knows him well. But a second kind conceals himself in order to get something special, and he is known, according to his good qualities or lack of good qualities, as best, worst, or middling.
Ladder 756
We will explain the good qualities and lack of good qualities in both of them in the discussion of courtesans. 29But the following women are not eligible to be lovers: a leper, a lunatic, a fallen woman, a woman who tells secrets, who asks for it in public, whose prime of youth is almost entirely gone, who is too light or too dark, bad-smelling, a relative, a woman friend, a wandering female ascetic, or the wife of a relative, of a friend, of a Brahmin who knows the Veda, or of a king.
Compare 62
30The followers of Babhravya say: 'Any woman who is known to have had five men is eligible.' 31But Gonikaputra says, '-except for the wife of a relative, of a friend, of a Brahmin who knows the Veda, or of a king.'
Hub 63
[5] The Work of the Man’s Male Helpers and Messengers
32 Someone who played in the sand with you, who is bound to you by a favour, who has the same character and vices, who went to school with you, who knows your vulnerable spots and secrets or whose vulnerable spots and secrets you know, your foster-brother, or someone who grew up with you, is someone you can regard as a friend. 33The conditions that make a friend are that his father and grandfathers were friends with yours, that he does not break his word, is steadfast, is under your control, firm, not greedy by nature, cannot be won over by someone else, and does not leak confidences.
Compare 757
37And there is a verse about this: A man who knows himself and has friends, who is well trained, knows about emotions, and recognizes the right time and place, can win over, effortlessly, even an unattainable woman.*
Hub 758
Cycle 64
Flow 65
Ladder 66
Compare 67
Hub 68
ONE Sexual Typology According to Size, Endurance, and Temperament [6]
1 The man is called a 'hare', 'bull', or 'stallion', according to the size of his sexual organ; a woman, however, is called a 'doe', 'mare', or 'elephant cow'. 2And so there are three equal couplings, between sexual partners of similar size, 3and six unequal ones, between sexual partners of dissimilar size.
Cycle 69
[6] Sexual Typology According to Size, Endurance, and Temperament
1 The man is called a 'hare', 'bull', or 'stallion', according to the size of his sexual organ; a woman, however, is called a 'doe', 'mare', or 'elephant cow'. 2And so there are three equal couplings, between sexual partners of similar size, 3and six unequal ones, between sexual partners of dissimilar size. Among the unequal ones, when the man is larger there are two couplings with the two sexual partners immediately smaller than him and one, when he is largest, with the smallest woman.
Cycle 759
But in the opposite case, in a coupling when the man is smaller, there are two sorts of couplings with the two women immediately larger than him and one, when he is smallest, with the largest woman. Among these, the equal couplings are best, the largest and the smallest are worst, and the rest are intermediate.* 4Even in the medium ones, it is better for the man to be larger than the woman.* Thus there are nine sorts of couplings according to size.
5 A man has dull sexual energy if, at the time of making love, his enthusiasm is indifferent, his virility small, and he cannot bear to be wounded, 6and a man has average or fierce sexual energy in the opposite circumstances. The same goes for the woman. 7And so, just as with size, so with temperament, too, there are nine sorts of couplings.
Flow 760
8 And similarly, with respect to endurance, men are quick, average, and long-lasting. 9But there is an argument about women in this matter. 10 Auddalaki says:* 'A woman does not reach a climax as a man does.
Ladder 761
11But she has an itch, which the man, during sex, scratches continually. 12And when this scratching is combined, in addition, with the sensual pleasure of erotic arousal, it produces a different feeling,* and this is what she thinks of as sensual pleasure. 13Someone might ask, "But since no one can know a man's ecstasy, and since no one can be asked, 'What sort of sensual pleasure do you feel?' 14how can this be known?" The answer would be: Because when a man reaches a climax, he stops of his own accord and pays no attention to the woman; a woman, however, is not like that.' 15 This objection might be raised about that argument: Women love the man whose sexual energy lasts for a long time, but they resent a man whose sexual energy ends quickly, because he stops before they reach a climax at the conclusion.
And all of that is a sign that they either do reach a climax, with the long-lasting man, or do not, with the quick man. For the scratching of an itch also feels good for a long time. And because of this ambiguity, the preference that women have for long-lasting men is no sign of a climax.
Compare 762
17 A man scratches a woman's itch when they make love; and when that is enhanced by erotic arousal it is called sensual pleasure.' 18 The followers of Babhravya say: 'A young woman reaches a climax continually, from the very beginning of lovemaking; a man, by contrast, only at the end. That is even more clearly evident. For surely no embryo would be conceived if she did not achieve a climax.' 19 There could be a further doubt and confutation about that argument, too.
Hub 763
20This objection may be raised about it: If a woman achieved this feeling continually, it would not be evident, as it is, that at the beginning her mind is indifferent and she cannot bear much, but gradually her passion grows greater and she has no regard for her body, and at the end there is a wish to stop. For when a potter's wheel or a spinning top whirls about in the same way, at the start it whirls with dull energy and then gradually increases to its full energy.
Flow 70
And the "wish to stop" occurs because the fluids are used up.* So this is not a convincing objection. 22 Men's sensual pleasure comes at the end of sex, but women's is continual. And the wish to stop occurs only when fluids are used up.' 23 Vatsyayana says: It is clearly apparent from this very argument that the sensual experience of a woman is manifested just like that of a man.
24How could two people of the same species who are striving toward a single goal achieve different climaxes? 25One might argue: because they differ in their methods and in their erotic arousal. 26But what causes the difference in their methods?
By his physical nature, the man is the active agent and the young woman is the passive locus; the agent contributes to the action in one way and the locus in another. And the difference in their erotic arousal comes from this difference in their methods that comes from their physical natures. The man is aroused by the thought, 'I am taking her', the young woman by the thought, 'I am being taken by him.' 27 This objection may be raised about that argument: 'Why do they not differ in their climaxes just as in their methods?' Not so.
Cycle 764
The difference in their methods has a cause, namely, the different characteristics of the active and passive roles. But, logically, there can be no difference in their climaxes since that has no cause. For they are not of different species.* 28 This objection may be raised about that argument: 'The different parts of a sentence (subject and locus) cohere in producing a single meaning, but these two people, by contrast, are each intent upon achieving separate personal goals.
So this analogy is inappropriate.' 29 Not so. Several agents may achieve their goals at the same time, as we see when two rams batter one another, or two wood apples* strike one another in a game, or two wrestlers are locked together in a fight. Someone might object: 'But there is no distinction between the two actors in these cases.' Nor is there any distinction between the essence of the subjects in this case, the man and woman.
The difference in their methods just comes from their physical natures, as has already been established in this argument. And so the two of them also experience a similar sensual pleasure. 30 Since there is no difference in the species of a couple, they seek a similar sensual pleasure.
Flow 765
Therefore the woman should be treated in such a way that she achieves her sexual climax first.* 31 Since the similarity in climaxes has been proved in this way, there are nine forms of sex keyed to endurance, too, in terms of the time to climax, just as there are nine in terms of size and temperament. 32 The synonyms for sexual pleasure (rati) are sexual feeling (rasa), sexual pleasure or ecstasy (rati), love or ecstasy (priti), emotion, temperament, or climax (bhava), passion (raga), sexual energy (vega), and satisfaction (samapti).
Ladder 71
The synonyms for the sexual act (surata) are sex or making love (samprayoga), mating or coupling (rata), the secret act (rahas), going to bed together (shayana), and seduction (mohana).* 33 Since there are nine kinds of sex according to each of the criteria of size, endurance, and temperament, when they are combined it is not possible to enumerate all the forms of sex. There are just too many. 34Vatsyayana says: After deliberating about these forms, a man should choose the appropriate sexual practices.
35 In the first coupling, the man's sexual energy is fierce but he lasts just a short time; in later ones, it is just the opposite. On the other hand, it is just the other way around for a woman, until the fluids are used up.* 36And it is commonly said: 'The man runs out of fluid before the woman runs out of fluid.' 37 'Women achieve their sensual pleasure quickly if they are naturally delicate and can be strongly stimulated.' That is what scholars agree upon.
Ladder 766
Compare 72
[7] Types of Love
38 Up to this point, sex has been explained for experts; from now on, a detailed description will be elaborated to enlighten the slow-witted.* 39 People who know the science say that love takes four forms, arising out of habit, erotic arousal, transference, and the objects of the senses. 40 The love that comes from habit is marked by the constant repetition of certain actions; it can be recognized in the course of activities like hunting, and is expressed in words and other manifestations.
41 The love that comes from erotic arousal arises from the imagination, not in response to any object of the senses, nor in activities that have previously become a habit.* 42 It can be recognized in the course of oral sex with a woman or with a person of the third nature, or in various activities such as kissing. 43 Those who know the science call it the love that comes from a transference when someone says, referring to another object of desire, 'This one here, not the other one from the past, is the one I love.'* 44 The love that comes from the objects of the senses, right before one's eyes, is well known in the world; and because it yields the most important fruit, it is the goal of the three others, too.
Compare 767
45 When a man learns about the types of love from the text, and recognizes each type from the signs that the text describes, he will make use of each emotion in the way appropriate to the manner in which it arises.
Hub 73
Cycle 74
Flow 75
Ladder 76
TWO Ways of Embracing [8]
1 Some people call the part* of this text about sex 'the sixty-four'. Because it has sixty-four sections, 2scholars have called the whole text 'the sixty-four'.* 3Or, because the arts number sixty-four and are a part of sex, 'the sixty-four' may refer to the aggregate of the arts.
Compare 77
[8] Ways of Embracing
1 Some people call the part* of this text about sex 'the sixty-four'. Because it has sixty-four sections, 2scholars have called the whole text 'the sixty-four'.* 3Or, because the arts number sixty-four and are a part of sex, 'the sixty-four' may refer to the aggregate of the arts. Some people say: 'Because the verses of the Rig Veda (which are divided into ten sections) are called "the sixty-four", that number connects this text with that one.
Hub 768
And because both of these texts are connected with Panchala, those who know the many verses of the Rig Veda use the name of "the sixty-four" to honour the Kamasutra.'* 4 The followers of Babhravya say: 'Sixty-four is eight eights, the eight theoretical varieties of each of the eight parts: embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, sexual positions, moaning, the woman playing the man's part, and oral sex.' 5But Vatsyayana says: Since the division into eight theoretical varieties is too few for some categories and too many for others, and since sex involves other categories, too, such as slapping, screaming, a man's sexual strokes, and unusual sexual acts, this is merely a manner of speaking, just as we speak of the 'seven-leaf devil tree or the 'five-colour' offering of rice. 6 When a man and woman have not yet made love together, they use four sorts of embraces to reveal the signs of their love: 'touching', 'stabbing', 'grinding', and 'pressing'.
7Generally, the exact meaning of the name precisely describes the action. 8On some pretext, he moves close to the woman he wants, when she is facing him, and touches limb to limb. 9She makes as if to take something from the man she wants, when he is standing or sitting in a deserted place, and stabs him with her breast, and the man also grasps her and presses in response.
Cycle 769
10These two embraces are for a couple who have not yet spoken much together. 11In a dark or crowded or deserted place, the two of them move slowly and grind their bodies against one another for not too brief a time. 12The very same action with a wall or a pillar used as the other leg of a pair of tongs, pressing extensively, is called 'pressing'.
Flow 770
13These two embraces are for a couple who have already understood one another's signals. 14 Four embraces are used while making love: the 'twining vine', 'climbing the tree', 'rice-and-sesame', and 'milk-and-water'. 15As a vine twines around a great dammar tree, so she twines around him and bends his face down to her to kiss him.
Or, raising it up again, she pants gently, rests on him, and gazes at him with love for a while. This is the 'twining vine'. 16She steps on his foot with her foot, places her other foot on his thigh or wraps her leg around him, with one arm gripping his back and the other bending down his shoulder, and panting gently, moaning a little, she tries to climb him to kiss him.
Ladder 771
Compare 772
This is 'rice-and-sesame'.*19 Blind with passion, oblivious to pain or injury, they embrace as if they would enter one another; she may be on his lap, seated facing him, or on a bed. 20These two embraces are used in moments of passion. 21Those are the ways of embracing closely, according to the followers of Babhravya.
Hub 78
22 But Suvarnanabha describes an additional four close embraces of a single part of the body: 23The thighs are used as a pair of tongs to press the partner's thigh, or both thighs, between them, squeezing as hard as possible. This is called the 'close embrace of the thighs'. 24The woman, her coiffed hair flying loose, leaps on top of the man and presses his pelvis with her pelvis, to scratch, bite, slap, and kiss him.
This is the 'close embrace of the pelvises'. 25She presses her two breasts into his chest and transfers their full weight to him. This is called the 'embrace of breasts'.
26One partner touches the other, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, forehead to forehead. This is the 'embrace of foreheads'. 27 Some people think that massaging is also a kind of close embrace, because it involves touching.
Hub 773
For a massage takes place at a particular time set aside, has a different use, and is not enjoyed by both partners in the same way. 29 When men ask about all the ways of embracing, or hear about them, or tell stories about them, they want to make love. 30 Some sexual embraces, not in this text, also intensify passion; those, too, may be used for love-making, but only with care.
31 The territory of the texts extends only so far as men have dull appetites; but when the wheel of sexual ecstasy is in full motion, there is no textbook at all, and no order.
Cycle 79
Flow 80
Ladder 81
Compare 82
Hub 83
Cycle 84
THREE Procedures of Kissing [9]
1 There is no order of precedence for kissing, scratching, or biting, because they involve passion. They are generally used before sex, and slapping and moaning during sex.
Flow 85
[9] Procedures of Kissing
1 There is no order of precedence for kissing, scratching, or biting, because they involve passion. They are generally used before sex, and slapping and moaning during sex. 2Vatsyayana says: Everything at any time, because passion does not look before it leaps.
Cycle 774
3 These techniques should be used one at a time and not blatantly, in the first coupling with a trusting woman, given the nature of her passion. After that, they may be used quite quickly, in particular combinations, to enflame passion. 4People kiss on the forehead, hair, cheeks, eyes, chest, breasts, lips, and the inside of the mouth; 5the people of Lata also kiss where the two thighs join the torso, on the armpits, and on the Mound of Venus.
6Vatsyayana says: There are all sorts of places to kiss, in the sway of passion and according to local customs, but not all of them are for all people. 7 There are three sorts of kisses for a virgin, called the 'casual', the 'throbbing', and the 'brushing'. 8When he grasps her by force and she places her mouth on his mouth but does not move, that is called the 'casual' kiss.
Flow 775
9When she is still a bit shy but wants to grasp his lower lip after he has pressed it into her mouth, and she makes her lower lip throb but cannot bear to do this with her upper lip-that is called the 'throbbing' kiss. 10When she grasps him gently, closes her eyes, covers his eyes with her hand, and brushes him with the tip of her tongue, that is the 'brushing' kiss. 11 And there are four more kisses: the 'equal', the 'sideways', the 'turned-around', and the 'pressing'.
Ladder 776
12There is also a fifth, called the 'pressing hard': cupping the fingers to squeeze the partner's lips into a ball, one partner presses hard with the cup of the lips, but without using the teeth. 13 Then a lover can play a game: 14the winner is the one who first grasps the other's lips. 15If she loses, she pretends to cry, waves her hand about, pushes him away, bites him, and turns away from him; if he drags her to him by force, she disputes the loss and says, 'Let us wager again.' If she loses that time too, she comes at him twice as much as before.
16If he becomes overconfident or careless, she grasps his lower lip and holds it with her teeth so that he cannot get it out; then she laughs, shouts, makes fun of him, leaps, exults, dances, and says whatever she pleases, mocking him, raising her eyebrows and rolling her eyes. This is the kissing-game quarrel. 17In this same manner, there are mock-quarrels for scratching, biting, and slapping.
Compare 777
Hub 778
21In this kiss, one partner may rub the tongue over the other's teeth, palate, or tongue; and this is called the 'battle of tongues'. 22It may also involve giving and receiving hard blows on the mouth and teeth. 23Kisses may be applied moderately, with pressure, with curved lips, or gently, on other parts of the body, each according to the particular place.
Ladder 86
Those are the varieties of kisses. 24 When a woman gazes at the mouth of her sleeping lover and kisses him because she desires him, this is the 'kiss that kindles passion'. 25The 'stirring kiss' is used to wake up a man who is inattentive, quarrelsome, looking in another direction, or inclined to sleep.
26A man who comes home late at night and finds his woman asleep in bed may give her an 'awakening kiss', because he desires her. 27But if she wishes to know her man's mood, she may pretend to be asleep when she knows he has come back. 28 He may kiss the reflection or shadow of the woman he wants, in a mirror, on a wall, or in water, to demonstrate his feelings.
29A 'transferred' kiss or embrace may be given to a child, a portrait or a statue. 30And at night, or at a performance, or in an assembly of his people, he moves close to the woman he wants and kisses her fingers, or sits down and kisses her toes. 31But when a woman who is giving the man a massage makes sure he has understood her signals and rests her face on his thighs as if she had no desire but was overcome by sleep, and then kisses his thighs, that is called a kiss 'making advances'.
Cycle 779
32And there is a verse about this:
Compare 87
Hub 88
Cycle 89
Flow 90
Ladder 91
Compare 92
FOUR Types of Scratching with the Nails [10]
1 When passion mounts, lovers scratch one another with their nails in the spirit of erotic friction. 2Scratching is for their first time together, or on a return from a journey or a departure for a journey, or for a woman who has just relented from her anger or is drunk.
Hub 93
[10] Types of Scratching with the Nails
1 When passion mounts, lovers scratch one another with their nails in the spirit of erotic friction. 2Scratching is for their first time together, or on a return from a journey or a departure for a journey, or for a woman who has just relented from her anger or is drunk. It is not to be used all the time, or by two people whose sexual energy is not fierce.
Flow 780
9The people of Gauda have long nails that make the hands beautiful and capture the hearts of women who look at them. 10The people of the South have short nails that are capable of doing work and can be used to produce whatever shapes one wishes to make. 11The people of Maharashtra have medium-sized nails that share the best qualities of both long and short nails.
Ladder 781
12 The 'gooseflesh' is made when the nails of this medium length are brought close together and moved over the chin, breasts, or lower lip, so lightly that they leave no line but by the mere touch cause the thrill of gooseflesh and make a sound as they strike one another. 13A man can do this to the woman he wants, in the course of massaging her body, scratching her head, squeezing her pimples, or disturbing her with something frightening. 14The 'half-moon' is a curved mark left by the nails on the neck or the upper part of the breast.
Compare 782
15When two of these are made face to face, they form a 'circle'. 16This can be applied to the Mound of Venus, the cavities of the loins, and the place where the thighs join the torso. 17The 'line', not too long, can be used on any place.
18If it is curved and applied right up to the nipple of the breast, it becomes a 'tiger's claw'. 19A 'line' facing toward the nipple, made by all five fingers facing one another, is the 'peacock's foot'. 20With a woman praised for her love-making, he uses the 'hare's leap', making five 'peacock's foot' scratches close together right on the nipple of her breast.
Hub 783
21A mark in the form of a lotus leaf, on the upper part of the breast or around the hips, is called a 'lotus leaf. 22When a man is about to depart on a journey, he marks three or four lines on her thighs or on the upper part of her breasts, to make her remember him. Those are the ways of using the nails.
Cycle 784
23 And he may also make other scratches, in various forms. 24Scholars say: 'Because the things people can imagine are infinite, and there are infinite kinds of dexterity, and one can learn anything by practice and repetition, and passion is at the very heart of cutting with the nails, who could survey all the forms?' 25Vatsyayana says: For even passion demands variety. And it is through variety that partners inspire passion in one another.
Cycle 94
It is their infinite variety that makes courtesans de luxe and their lovers remain desirable to one another. Even in archery and in other martial arts, the textbooks insist on variety. How much more is this true of sex!
26But a man should not scratch marks of such variety on the wives of other men-except for special marks on concealed places, to increase their passion and make them remember. 27 When a woman sees the scars that nails have made on her hidden places, her love even for someone given up long ago becomes as tender as if it were brand new. 28 When passions have been given up long ago, love may disappear unless there are wounds made by nails to prompt memories of the abodes of passion.
29 Passion and respect arise even in another man who sees, from a distance, a young girl with the marks of nails cut into her breasts. 30 And a man who is marked with the signs of nails in various places generally disturbs a woman's mind no matter how firm it may be. 31 There are no keener means of increasing passion than acts inflicted with tooth and nail.
Flow 785
Flow 95
Ladder 96
Compare 97
Hub 98
Cycle 99
Flow 100
FIVE Ways of Biting [11]
1 The places for kissing are also for biting, except for the upper lip, the inside of the mouth, and the eyes. 2Teeth of good quality are even and of the right size, with a shiny, reflective surface, sharp edges, no chips, and the ability to retain colours.
Ladder 101
[11] Ways of Biting
1 The places for kissing are also for biting, except for the upper lip, the inside of the mouth, and the eyes. 2Teeth of good quality are even and of the right size, with a shiny, reflective surface, sharp edges, no chips, and the ability to retain colours. 3Teeth of bad quality are blunt, marked with lines, rough, uneven, soft, broad, and separated by spaces.
Ladder 786
9The 'earring kiss' and wounds made by both scratching and biting are adornments for the left cheek. 10The 'coral and jewel' is so-called because it is made by bringing the teeth and lip together repeatedly. 11This same mark, repeated to form an ensemble, makes the 'garland of jewels'.
Compare 787
12The 'dot' is so called because it is made on a very small patch of skin with a pincer formed by a pair of teeth. 13And repeated to form an ensemble, it makes the 'garland of dots'. 14Both of these 'garlands' can be made on the neck, armpit, or flanks, 15but the 'garland of dots' can also be made on the forehead and thighs.
Hub 788
16The 'scattered clouds', on the top of the breasts, form a kind of circle with uneven peaks. 17The 'gnawing of the wild boar', only on the top of the breasts, is a series of many rows of long tooth-marks close together, with crimson between them. 18The last two are only for two people whose sexual energy is fierce.
Those are the ways of biting. 19 When a man applies scratches, bites, and so forth to a forehead decoration, an earring, a bouquet of flowers, betel, or a sweet-smelling cinnamon bay-leaf used by the woman he wants, he is making advances.
Cycle 789
Compare 102
[12] Customs from Different Regions
20 A man should treat a woman according to the nature of the region she comes from. 21The women from central India are mostly noblewomen with pure habits; they hate kissing, scratching, and biting, 22and so do the women of Bahlika and Avantika, 23though they are fond of unusual sexual acts. 24Women from Malava and Abhira like embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, and sucking, and although they do not like to be wounded they can be won over by slaps.
25The women who live in the land watered by the Indus and the other five rivers like oral sex. 26The women of the West and of Lata are capable of fierce sexual energy, and they moan softly. 27In the land where women rule,* and in Kosala, the women like to be slapped hard and generally use sex tools, for their sexual energy is very rough indeed.
Flow 790
28The women of Andhra are delicate by nature but have coarse habits and are very fond of sexual ecstasy and impure delights. 29The women of Maharashtra are aroused by all of the sixty-four techniques, enjoy dirty, coarse talk, and take the initiative impetuously in bed. 30The women of the city are just like that, but they reveal it only in private.
31And when Dravidian women are stimulated with fore-play they only very slowly become wet. 32The women of Vanavasa have average sexual energy and will endure everything, but they hide their bodies, laugh at other people's bodies, and cannot abide anything objectionable, dirty or rough. 33The women of Gauda speak delicately, have delicate bodies, and tend to fall in love.
34 Suvarnanabha says, 'The nature of the individual is more important than the nature of the region.' Local customs are not relevant to this matter. 35And in the course of time, practices, styles of clothing, and games move from one region to another; and a person should know that, too. 36In the list that begins with close embraces, each kindles more passion than the one that follows but is more commonly used.
Ladder 791
37 Whatever wound a man inflicts on a woman, even when she tries to restrain him and cannot bear it, she should do that very thing to him twice as hard. 38 The response to a 'dot' is a 'garland', and to a 'garland', a 'scattered cloud'. Pretending to be angry, this is how a woman picks a quarrel.
39 She grabs him by the hair and bends down his face and drinks from his mouth; she pounces on him and bites him here and there, crazed with passion. 40 Resting on the chest of the man she loves, she raises his head and bites him on the neck with the 'garland of jewels' or any other bite she knows. 41 When she sees the man, even in the daytime, in the midst of a group of people, displaying the mark that she herself made on him, she laughs, unnoticed by the others.
42 Then, pretending to wrinkle her face, and pretending to rebuke the man, as if in jealousy, she displays the marks made on her own body. 43 When two people behave in this way with modesty and concern for one another's feelings, their love will never wane, not even in a hundred years.
Compare 792
Hub 103
Cycle 104
Flow 105
Ladder 106
Compare 107
Hub 108
SIX Varieties of Sexual Positions [13]
1 At the moment of passion, in a coupling where the man is larger than the woman, a 'doe' positions herself in such a way as to stretch herself open inside. 2And in a coupling where the man is smaller, an 'elephant cow' contracts herself inside.
Cycle 109
[13] Varieties of Sexual Positions
1 At the moment of passion, in a coupling where the man is larger than the woman, a 'doe' positions herself in such a way as to stretch herself open inside. 2And in a coupling where the man is smaller, an 'elephant cow' contracts herself inside. 3Where the union is in harmony, she just lies flat on her back.
Hub 793
4What has been said of these two women also applies to the 'mare'. 5As she is doing this, the woman receives the man inside her. 6Sex tools may also be used, especially in a coupling where the man is smaller than the woman.
7 A 'doe' generally has three positions to choose from: the 'wide open', the 'yawning', or the 'Junoesque'. 8Her head thrown down, her pelvis raised up, she is 'wide open'. 9This position must allow a way for the man to slide back.
Cycle 794
Flow 795
13 She receives him with the 'cup' in a coupling when the man is smaller, 14and even in the coupling when he is smallest. An 'elephant cow' 15may use the 'cup', the 'squeeze', the 'circle', and the 'mare's trap'. 16In the 'cup', both partners stretch out both of their two legs straight.
Ladder 796
Those are the forms of the sexual positions according to the followers of Babhravya. 23 Now for those of Suvarnanabha: 24When both thighs of the woman are raised, it is called the 'curve'.
Compare 797
25When the man holds her legs up, it is the 'yawn'. 26When he does that but also flexes her legs at the knees, it is the 'high-squeeze'. 27When he does that but stretches out one of her feet, it is the 'half-squeeze'.
Flow 110
Ladder 111
[14] Unusual Sexual Acts
36 The following are unusual sexual acts. 37Two young people lean against a wall or a pillar or one another and embrace standing up. This is called, 'sex standing up'.
38He leans against a wall, and she throws the noose of her arms tightly around his neck and sits on the cage made by his two hands clasped together; she wraps the noose of her thighs around his pelvis in a circle and swings from one side to the other by shifting from one foot to the other on the wall. This is called 'sex suspended'. 39When she gets on the ground on all fours and he mounts her like a bull, that is 'sex like a cow'.
40In this position, he does on her back the things that he usually does to her chest. 41He may also consider various other special matings of this sort, not previously mentioned, imitating the behaviour of a dog, stag, or billygoat, the donkey's assault, the cat's pounce, the tiger's spring, the elephant's crush, the boar's friction, or the stallion's mounting. 42 With two women who are fond of one another, it is 'sex in a cluster'.
Hub 798
43Done with many women, it is 'sex with a herd of cows'. 44Water sports, and sex in the manner of a goat or in the manner of a stag, imitate the acts of animals. 45In regions where there are villages of women, or where women rule, and in the region of Bahlika, many young men serve each woman sexually, as if they were her harem.
Cycle 799
46They pleasure her one by one or all together, according to what suits her temperament and is feasible. 47One of the men holds her, while another uses her sexually: one between her legs, another in her mouth, yet another on the middle of her body, and they do these things by turns, alternating, one after the other. 48Like such a woman, a courtesan has sexual relationships with an entire company of men, and men are said to provide sexual services for the women who belong to the king.* 49 The people in the South indulge in 'sex below', even in the anus.
Those are the unusual sexual acts. 50 We will describe a man's sexual strokes in the discussion of the woman playing the man's part. 51 And there are two verses about this: A man who understands the heart should enlarge his repertory of techniques for sexual ecstasy by this means and that, imitating the amorous movements of tame animals, wild animals, and birds.
Flow 800
52 When these various erotic moods are evoked according to the particular nature of the woman and of her region, they inspire women's affection, passion, and respect.
Compare 112
Hub 113
Cycle 114
Flow 115
Ladder 116
SEVEN Modes of Slapping [15]
1 They say that sex is a form of quarrelling, because the very essence of desire is argument, and its character is perverse. 2Therefore a part of sex is slapping-on the shoulders, on the head, between the breasts, on the back, between the legs, and on the sides-3in four ways: with the back of the hand, the outstretched hand, the fist, or the flat palm of the hand.
Compare 117
[16] The Accompanying Moaning
1 They say that sex is a form of quarrelling, because the very essence of desire is argument, and its character is perverse. 2Therefore a part of sex is slapping-on the shoulders, on the head, between the breasts, on the back, between the legs, and on the sides-3in four ways: with the back of the hand, the outstretched hand, the fist, or the flat palm of the hand. 4 Moaning arises out of this, since it expresses pain, and moaning takes several forms.
Ladder 801
5There are eight kinds of screaming: 6 whimpering, groaning, babbling, crying, panting, shrieking, or sobbing.* 7And there are various sounds that have meaning, such as 'Mother!' 'Stop!' 'Let go!' 'Enough!' 8As a major part of moaning she may use, according to her imagination, the cries of the dove, cuckoo, green pigeon, parrot, bee, nightingale, goose, duck, and partridge. 9 He strikes her on her back with his fist when she is seated on his lap. 10Then she pretends to be unable to bear it and beats him in return, while groaning, crying, or babbling.
11When he is inside her, he slaps her with the back of his hand between her breasts, 12gently at first, then harder as she becomes more passionate, until the climax.* 13All the while he is doing this she whimpers or makes any of the other sounds over and over again, with varying intensity, following no rules. 14If she protests, he strikes her on the head until she sobs, using a hand whose fingers are slightly bent, which is called the 'outstretched hand'.
Compare 802
15At this she babbles with sounds inside her mouth, and she sobs. 16When the sex ends, there is panting and crying. 17Shrieking is a sound like a bamboo splitting, and 18sobbing sounds like a berry falling into water.
Hub 803
19Always, if a man tries to force his kisses and so forth on her, she moans and does the very same thing back to him. 20When a man in the throes of passion slaps a woman repeatedly, she uses words like 'Stop!' or 'Let me go!' or 'Enough!' or 'Mother!' and utters screams mixed with laboured breathing, panting, crying, and groaning. As passion nears its end, he beats her between her legs and on her sides, extremely quickly, until the climax.* 21At this, she begins to babble, fast, like a partridge or a goose.
Those are the ways of groaning and slapping. 22 And there are two verses about this: A man's natural talent* is his roughness and ferocity, a woman's is her lack of power and her suffering, self-denial, and weakness. 23 Their passion and a particular technique may sometimes lead them even to exchange roles; but not for very long.
Cycle 804
In the end, the natural roles are re-established. 24 There are four forms of slapping* used in the South that, when added to those already discussed, make eight: the 'wedge' applied to the chest, the 'scissors' on the head, the 'drill' on the cheeks, and the 'tongs' on the breasts and sides. Marks made by 'wedges' in this way can be seen on the chest of young women there.
Flow 805
This is a particular local custom. 25But Vatsyayana says: It is a painful and barbarous thing to do, and not to be sanctioned. 26So, too, one should not take any other custom used in one particular region and use it in another.
Hub 118
27One should also avoid, even in the region where it is used, anything that is dangerous. 28The King of the Cholas killed Chitrasena, a courtesan de luxe, by using the 'wedge' during sex. 29And the Kuntala king Shatakarni Shatavahana killed his queen, Malayavati, by using the 'scissor'.
30Naradeva, whose hand was deformed, blinded a dancing-girl in one eye by using the 'drill' clumsily.*31 And there are verses about this: This is no matter for numerical lists or textbook tables of contents. For people joined in sexual ecstasy, passion is what makes things happen. 32 The emotions and fantasies conjured up in a moment in the midst of sexual chaos cannot be imagined even in dreams.
33 For, just as a horse in full gallop, blinded by the energy of his own speed, pays no attention to any post or hole or ditch on the path, so two lovers blinded by passion in the friction of sexual battle, are caught up in their fierce energy and pay no attention to danger. 34 And so a man who understands the text will apply it only after he has come to know the delicacy, ferocity, and strength of his young woman, and his own strength.
Ladder 806
35 The sexual techniques cannot be used at all times and on all women. The method must be chosen according to the part of the body, the region, and the time.
Cycle 119
Flow 120
Ladder 121
Compare 122
Hub 123
Cycle 124
EIGHT The Woman Playing the Man’s Part [17]
1 When she sees that the man has become exhausted by continuous repetition, but that his passion is still not quenched, she may, with his permission, roll him under her and give him some help by playing the man's part herself. 2Or she can do it out of her own desire to do something she has only imagined doing, 3or to satisfy the man's erotic curiosity.
Flow 125
[17] The Woman Playing the Man’s Part
1 When she sees that the man has become exhausted by continuous repetition, but that his passion is still not quenched, she may, with his permission, roll him under her and give him some help by playing the man's part herself. 2Or she can do it out of her own desire to do something she has only imagined doing, 3or to satisfy the man's erotic curiosity. 4To play the man's part, when he is inside her, she gets on top and puts him underneath her.
Compare 807
In this way they can make love continually without interrupting the flow of love-making. This is one way of doing it. 5The second way is to begin again and let her do this from the very start.
6With the flowers from her hair strewn about, her laughter interrupted by her hard breathing, pressing his chest hard with her breasts to join her face to his, bending her head down again and again, she does to him in return now whatever acts he demonstrated before. She says, 'You threw me down, and now I am throwing you down in return', laughing at him and threatening him and hitting him. And, at the same time, she indicates that she is embarrassed and exhausted and wishes to stop.
Hub 808
She moves on him with precisely the sexual strokes* of a man.
Ladder 126
[18] A Man’s Sexual Strokes
8 When the woman is lying on the bed, the man distracts her attention, as it were, with conversation and loosens her waistband. If she argues against this, he overwhelms her by kissing her cheeks. 9When he becomes hard, he touches her here and there.
10If it is the first time that they have been together, he caresses her between her tightly closed thighs. 11And if she is a virgin, 12he caresses her breasts, which she has tightly pressed together, and her hands, armpits, shoulders, and neck. 13If she is a loose woman, he does what is suitable and feasible.
Cycle 809
He catches hold of her by her hair, mercilessly, to kiss her, and cups his fingers to grasp her chin. 14This embarrasses his partner and makes her close her eyes if it is the first time they have been together, or if she is a virgin. 15And thinking, 'How can I arouse her passion for me?' he observes what she does when they are united in love-making.
16When he is moving inside her, and her eyes roll when she feels him in certain spots, he presses her in just those spots.* Suvarnanabha says, 'This is the secret of young women.' 17The signs that a woman is reaching her climax are that her limbs become limp, her eyes close, she loses all sense of shame, and she takes him deeper and deeper inside her. 18She flails her hands about, sweats, bites, will not let him get up, kicks him, and continues to move over the man even after he has finished making love.
19Before he enters her, he puts his hand, like an elephant's trunk, inside her and agitates her until she becomes soft and wet, and then he enters her. 20 A man's sexual strokes are 'moving around', 'churning', the 'dagger', 'grinding down', 'pressing', the 'blast of wind', the 'boar's thrust', the 'bull's thrust', 'frolicking like a sparrow', and the 'cup'. 21Regular, straight sex is called 'moving around'.
Flow 810
22When he takes his sexual organ in his hand and rotates it in all directions, it is called 'churning'. 23When he lowers her pelvis and thrusts into her from above, it is called 'the dagger'. 24When he raises her pelvis and thrusts into her from below, violently, it is called 'grinding down'.
25When he stabs her deeply and remains there, pressing her, for a long time, that is called 'pressing'. 26When he pulls out quite far and then plunges down into her fast and hard, it is called the 'blast of wind'. 27When he reams her many times just on one side, that is the 'boar's thrust'.
28When he does this to both sides, alternating, it is the 'bull's thrust'. 29When he enters her once and, without pulling out entirely, thrusts into her two, three, four times, and does this repeatedly, it is called 'frolicking like a sparrow'. 30The 'cup', which has been described, is the method used when passion is ending.* 31A man should choose from these sexual strokes and use the one particularly suited for each woman.
Ladder 811
Compare 127
Compare 812
36When she twists around him while swinging her pelvis back and forth in all directions, that is the 'swing'.* 37She may rest, with him still firmly within her, by laying her forehead on his forehead. 38And when she has rested, the man turns over on top again. That is how the woman plays the man's part.
Hub 813
39 And there are verses about this: Even when a sensual woman covers up her own feelings and hides her signals, she unveils her own feelings completely when her passion drives her to get on top. 40 A man can learn everything -a woman's personality, what sort of sex excites her- from the ways she moves on top. 41 But he should not make a woman act the man's part if she has her period, or has recently given birth, or if she is a 'doe' woman, or pregnant, or very fat.
Hub 128
Cycle 129
Flow 130
Ladder 131
Compare 132
NINE Oral Sex [19]
1 There are two sorts of persons of the third nature, in the form of a woman and in the form of a man. 2The one in the form of a woman imitates a woman's dress, chatter, grace, emotions, delicacy, timidity, innocence, frailty, and bashfulness.
Hub 133
[19] Oral Sex
Cycle 814
That is the person of the third nature in the form of a woman. 6 The one in the form of a man, however, conceals her desire when she wants a man and makes her living as a masseur. 7As she massages the man, she caresses his two thighs with her limbs, as if she were embracing him.
8Then she becomes more boldly intimate and familiar and touches the places where his thighs join his torso, and his sexual organ. 9If she notices that he has become hard as a result of this, she stimulates him by using her hand as a churn, pretending to tease him about how easily he becomes excited and laughing at him. 10If the man does not urge her on, even when he has given this clear sign and even when it is obvious that he is aroused, she makes advances to him on her own.
Flow 815
11If the man urges her to go on, she argues with him and only unwillingly continues. 12 Oral sex involves eight acts, one after the other: 13the 'casual', 'biting the sides', 'the outer tongs', 'the inner tongs', 'kissing', 'polishing', 'sucking the mango', and 'swallowing'. 14As she finishes each one, she expresses her wish to stop, 15and when each one is finished, the man asks her to do the next one, and when that one is finished, the one after that.
Ladder 816
16In the 'casual' act, she holds it with her hand, places it on her lips, pierces her mouth with it and moves it back and forth. 17She bares the glans with her hand, nibbles at its sides with her two lips, keeping her teeth away, and she tantalizes him by saying, 'This is as far I as go.' That is 'biting the sides'. 18When the man urges her to do more, she closes her lips, presses them down on the glans and kisses him as if drawing it out.
That is called 'the outer tongs'. 19Begging her to go on doing this, he pushes a little deeper into her mouth, and she squeezes the glans with her lips and then spits it out. That is called 'the inner tongs'.
Compare 817
Hub 818
That is called 'sucking the mango'. 23Only when the man asks for it does she swallow it up and press until the climax. 24Groaning and slapping may also be used, as they are called for.
Cycle 134
28Therefore people in the East do not make love with women who practise oral sex. 29And the people of Ahichattra do not make love with courtesans, but when they do, they avoid the act of the mouth with these women. 30The men of Saketa do not worry about anything when they make love.
31The men of the city* do not indulge in oral sex themselves, 32but the people of Surasena do everything, without the slightest hesitation. 33For this is what they say: 'For who can have any faith in women's good character, purity, good behaviour, good practices, reliability, or words? For by their very nature they have a dirty gaze, but they need not be rejected.
Cycle 819
Therefore the religious tradition tells us to regard them as pure. And so they say: "A calf is unpolluted while the milk is flowing, as is a dog when it catches a wild animal, a bird when it knocks down a fruit, and a woman's mouth in the ecstasy of sex." '* 34 Vatsyayana says: Since learned men disagree and there are discrepancies in what the religious texts say, one should act according to the custom of the region and one's own disposition and confidence.
35 And there are verses about this: Even young men, servants who wear polished earrings, indulge in oral sex only with certain men. 36 And, in the same way, certain men-about-town who care for one another's welfare and have established trust do this service for one another. 37 Sometimes men even perform this act upon women, transposing the procedure for kissing a mouth.
38 Sometimes a man and woman may turn their bodies head to foot, so that they can make love to one another at the same time; and that is known as 'sex in the manner of crows.'* 39 It is for this that courtesans reject virtuous, clever, generous men, and become attached to scoundrels, servants, elephant-drivers, and so forth. 40 But a wise Brahmin, or a minister of state or a man on whom the king depends or any man in whom people confide, should not indulge in oral sex.
Flow 820
41 For the statement that 'There is a text for this' does not justify a practice. People should realize that the contents of the texts apply in general, but each actual practice is for one particular region. 42 Medical science, for example, recommends cooking even dog meat, for juice and virility; but what intelligent person would eat it?
Flow 135
43 There are some men, and there are certain sorts of regions, and there are times when these practices are not without their uses. 44 Therefore, when a man has considered the region, and the time, and the technique, and the textbook teachings, and himself, he may-or may not-make use of these practices. 45 But because this matter is secret, and because the mind and heart are fickle, who could know who should do what, and when and how?
Ladder 136
Compare 137
Hub 138
Cycle 139
Flow 140
TEN The Start and Finish of Sex [20]
1 In a room of his house dedicated to sex, a room decorated, full of flowers, and fragrant with perfume and incense, the man-about-town, surrounded by his friends and servants, receives the woman, when she has bathed and adorned herself and has drunk the proper amount; he puts her at ease and offers her another drink. 2He sits down on her right side and touches her hair, the fringe of her sari, and the knot of her waistband.
Ladder 141
[20] The Start and Finish of Sex
1 In a room of his house dedicated to sex, a room decorated, full of flowers, and fragrant with perfume and incense, the man-about-town, surrounded by his friends and servants, receives the woman, when she has bathed and adorned herself and has drunk the proper amount; he puts her at ease and offers her another drink. 2He sits down on her right side and touches her hair, the fringe of her sari, and the knot of her waistband. He embraces her gently with his left arm to prepare to make love.
Ladder 821
And that is the beginning of sex. 6 As for the end of sex, when their passion has ebbed, the man and woman go out separately to the bathing place, embarrassed, not looking at one another, as if they were not even acquainted with one another. When they return, they sit down in their usual places without embarrassment, and chew some betel, and he himself rubs sandalwood paste or some other scented oil on her body.
Compare 822
7He embraces her with his left arm and, holding a cup in his hand, persuades her to drink. Or both of them may drink some water or eat some bite-sized snacks or something else, according to their temperament and inclination: 8fruit juice, grilled foods, sour rice-broth, soups with small pieces of roasted meats, mangoes, dried meat, citrus fruits with sugar, according to the tastes of the region. As he tastes each one he tells her, 'This one is sweet' or 'delicate' or 'soft', and offers it to her.
Hub 823
9Sometimes they sit on the rooftop porch to enjoy the moonlight, and tell stories that suit their mood. As she lies in his lap, looking at the moon, he points out the rows of the constellations to her; they look at the Pleiades, the Pole Star, and the garland of Seven Sages that form the Great Bear. That is the end of sex.
10 And there are these verses about this: Even at the end, love enhanced by thoughtful acts and words and deeds exchanged in confidence gives rise to the highest ecstasy. 11 Responding to their feelings about themselves, inspiring mutual love, at one moment turning away in anger, at another moment looking with love, 12 they play the 'plough-handle' game, sing,
Cycle 824
Compare 142
and dance in the Lata way;
they look at the circle of the moon with eyes moist and flickering with passion. 13 They talk about it all, about the desires they felt when they first saw one another long ago, and the unhappiness they felt when they were later separated. And when they finish talking they embrace and kiss with passion.
Through these and other feelings the young couple's passion grows again.
Hub 143
[21] Different Kinds of Sex
14 The different kinds of sex are 'passionate sex', 'excitable passion', 'artificial passion', 'transferred passion', 'sex with a coarse servant', 'sex with a peasant', and 'unfettered sex'. 15When the passion of a man and a woman grows great from the moment that they see one another, and they get together only with great effort, or one of them returns after a long journey, or they reunite after a separation caused by a quarrel-that is 'passionate sex'; 16this kind of sex goes on according to their inclination, until the climax.
17When two people begin with average passion but then become more passionate toward one another, that is an 'excitable passion'; 18in this kind of sex, the man stimulates the passion, kindling it and rekindling it with those of the sixty-four techniques that suit their inclinations. 19When two people make love for the sake of a particular goal or are attached to others, that is an 'artificial passion'; 20in this kind of sex, the man employs all together the techniques learned from the textbooks.
Flow 825
21But when a man, placing in his mind another woman who is dear to his heart, superimposes or transfers her onto his actual partner from the moment he begins to make love until he reaches a climax, that is a 'transferred passion'. 22'Sex with a coarse servant'* takes place with a lower-class female water-carrier or house-servant, until the climax; 23in this kind of sex, he does not bother with the acts of civility. 24Similarly, 'sex with a peasant' takes place between a courtesan and a country bumpkin, until the climax, 25or between a man-about-town and women from the countryside, cow-herding villages, or countries beyond the borders.
26'Unfettered sex' takes place between two people who trust one another, since each does whatever the other likes. Those are the different kinds of sex.
Cycle 144
[22] Lovers’ Quarrels
27 Now, a woman who has grown fond of a man cannot bear it if he utters the name of a co-wife or casually refers to her or accidentally calls the woman by the other woman's name,* or if the man plays her false. 28Then there is a great quarrel, with weeping, anguish, tossing hair, slaps, falling from the bed or chair onto the ground, tearing off garlands and jewellery, and sleeping on the floor. 29When she does this, he remains calm in his own mind and heart and wins her over with appropriate words of conciliation or by falling at her feet, and he lifts her back onto the bed.
Ladder 826
32When, however, a woman who lives in her own house has quarrelled for some reason, she approaches the man with the same sorts of actions. 33Then the man engages libertines, panders, and clowns to assuage her anger, and they are the ones who win her over, and the ones with whom she goes to his house, and there she stays. Those are the lovers' quarrels.
34 And there are verses about this: The lover who employs in this way the sixty-four arts of love that Babhravya taught is successful with the best women. 35 Even if he can talk about other sciences, if he lacks the sixty-four arts of love he is not very well respected in conversations in the assembly of learned men. 36 But if he is adorned with the sixty-four arts of love, even if he lacks other sorts of knowledge, he penetrates to the very top place in conversations in the society of men and women.
37 Wise men delight in it, even the dregs of society delight in it highly, and the troupes of courtesans de luxe delight in it; who does not delight in this Source of Delight? 38 Scholars, in their texts, say that this Source of Delight is loved by women and brings fortune, success, and luck in love. 39 Virgins, other men's wives, and courtesans de luxe look with warm feelings and respect on the man who is skilled in the sixty-four arts of love.
Compare 827
Flow 145
Ladder 146
Compare 147
Hub 148
ONE Courting the Girl [23]
1 In a woman who is of the same class, who has not been with another man before, and who has been taken in accordance with the texts, a man finds religion, power, sons, connections, the growth of his faction, and straightforward sexual pleasure.* 2Therefore he should cultivate a virgin of noble stock whose mother and father are living and who is at least three years younger than he. She should come of a family that is respectable, wealthy, well connected, and rich in relatives who get along well with one another.
Cycle 149
[23] Courting the Girl
1 In a woman who is of the same class, who has not been with another man before, and who has been taken in accordance with the texts, a man finds religion, power, sons, connections, the growth of his faction, and straightforward sexual pleasure.* 2Therefore he should cultivate a virgin of noble stock whose mother and father are living and who is at least three years younger than he. She should come of a family that is respectable, wealthy, well connected, and rich in relatives who get along well with one another.
Hub 828
Her mother and father should come from powerful factions. She should have beauty, good character, and lucky marks on her body, and her teeth, nails, ears, hair, eyes, and breasts should be neither insufficient nor excessive, and undamaged. She should not be sickly by nature.
He himself should have precisely these qualities, and Vedic learning, too. 3Ghotaka-mukha says, 'A man should regard himself as fulfilled when he has taken such a woman, and his peers cannot fault him for courting her.' 4 His father and mother and relatives help him court her, as do friends who are connected with both sides* and who confirm his words. 5They allude to her other suitors' faults, both those apparent now and those to come, and reveal the man's good qualities, both of his family and of his personal manliness, qualities that will increase the parents' inclination to give him the girl, and especially those qualities, both present and future, that the girl's mother likes.
Cycle 829
6One of these friends dresses up as a fortune-teller and describes the man's future good luck and prosperity by interpreting the flights of birds, omens, the influence of the planets according to their positions in the zodiac, and the lucky marks on his body.* 7Others drive the girl's mother crazy with worry that he will get another girl elsewhere, by some special means. 8He courts the girl, and receives her, at a time when fate, omens, bird signs, and overheard conversations are favourable.* 9'Not just by preference, which is merely human', says Ghotakamukha.
Flow 830
10 Firmly reject a girl who, at the time of courtship, falls asleep, cries, or goes out, 11and reject any girl who has been given a name that is not recommended, who is kept hidden, who has already been given away, who is tawny,* pimply, stooped, bow-legged, or like a bull, whose forehead bulges, who is promiscuous or pregnant, a friend, a girl who has started menstruating, whose purity has been defiled, who is too close in age, or who sweats profusely. 12 Never court a girl with a disgusting name that is a constellation, a river, a tree, or ends in a syllable beginning with 'l' or 'r'.* 13 Some people say, 'A man will do well with a woman who catches and binds his mind and heart and his eyes.
He should not consider any other woman.' 14 And so, when it is time to give the girl away, her people dress her in her finest and bring her out. Every afternoon, she gets dressed up and amuses herself with her girlfriends, and her people eagerly display her at crowded events such as sacrifices and weddings and at similar festivals, because she is just like any other piece of merchandise. 15They receive with ceremony the men who come there to court her, if those men are nice-looking, well spoken, and accompanied by their relatives.
Ladder 831
16And they find some other pretext to show them the girl when she is all dressed up. 17They set a limit to the period in which they will ascertain and test the workings of fate and the gods and then, at the end, they make the decision about giving her away. 18When they are invited to bathe and so forth, those making the choice of bridegroom say, 'All of that will happen', but they do not agree to do it on the very day of the invitation.
Compare 832
19 According to the customs of the place and in keeping with the texts, a man should marry by a wedding in the manner of Brahma, of the Lord of Creatures, of the Sages, or of the Gods. Those are the rules of courtship.*
Flow 150
Ladder 151
[24] Making Alliances
20 And there are verses about this: A man should engage in group games such as completing verses,* and in marriages and alliances, only with his equals, not with people above or below him. 21 When the man marries a girl and lives with her like a servant, they call this an 'upward alliance'* and wise men avoid it. 22 Good people also despise the worthless 'downward alliance', in which his own in-laws defer to him and he behaves like a master.
23 The best alliance plays the game so that both sides taste one another's happiness and treat one another as unique individuals. 24 Even when a man has made an 'upward alliance', he must later bow low among his in-laws; but he simply must not make a 'downward alliance', which good people despise.
Hub 833
Compare 152
Hub 153
Cycle 154
Flow 155
Ladder 156
TWO Winning a Virgin’s Trust [25]
1 For the first three nights after they have been joined together, the couple sleep on the ground, remain sexually continent, and eat food that has no salt or spices. Then, for seven days they bathe ceremonially to the sound of musical instruments, dress well, dine together, attend performances, and pay their respects to their relatives.
Compare 157
[25] Winning a Virgin’s Trust
1 For the first three nights after they have been joined together, the couple sleep on the ground, remain sexually continent, and eat food that has no salt or spices. Then, for seven days they bathe ceremonially to the sound of musical instruments, dress well, dine together, attend performances, and pay their respects to their relatives. All of this applies to all the classes.
Cycle 834
2During this ten-night period, he begins to entice her with gentle courtesies when they are alone together at night. 3 The followers of Babhravya say, 'If the girl sees that the man has not made conversation for three nights, like a pillar, she will be discouraged and will despise him, as if he were someone of the third nature.'*4 Vatsyayana says: He begins to entice her and win her trust, but he still remains sexually continent. 5When he entices her he does not force her in any way, 6for women are like flowers, and need to be enticed very tenderly.
If they are taken by force by men who have not yet won their trust they become women who hate sex. Therefore he wins her over with gentle persuasion.* 7But to penetrate her defences, he uses any means, even a trick, that enables him to make an advance. 8 He uses an embrace that she likes because it does not last for too long.
Flow 835
9He begins by embracing her upper body, because this is easy to endure. 10He does this by the light of a lamp, if she has reached the prime of her youth and has already became familiar with him, or in the dark, if she is still a child and has no previous experience. 11When the woman has accepted his embrace, he gives her betel with his mouth.
Ladder 836
If she does not accept it, he gets her to take it through conciliating words, oaths, repeated requests, and falling at her feet. (Even a bashful or very angry woman cannot resist a man falling at her feet; this is a universal rule.) 12While giving her the betel, he kisses her softly, calmly, without a sound. 13 When she has been won over in this way, he gets her to talk.
14In order to hear her talk, he asks her, as if he did not know it, about something or other that can be expressed in just a few syllables. 15If she does not respond to that, he asks her again, many times, while soothing her, never distressing her. 16If she still says nothing, he should persevere in urging her.
Compare 837
17For, says Ghotakamukha, 'All girls put up with a man's words, but they will not utter a word themselves, even in small-talk.' 18When she is urged, however, she gives her replies by nodding or shaking her head; except that, in a quarrel, she does not even move her head. 19 When he asks her, 'Do you want me or do you not want me? Do I please you or do I not please you?' she remains still for a long time, and when he urges her she nods or shakes her head to indicate her inclination; but if he asks her yet again, she argues with him.
Hub 838
20If she is already familiar with him, he may carry on a conversation with her through the mediation of a girlfriend whom both of them trust but who inclines toward him. During this conversation, the girl smiles with her head down, and if the friend says too much, she scolds her and argues with her. The friend, however, may say, just for a joke, 'This is what she said', even if she did not say it.
Hub 158
The girl sends the friend away because of this, and remains silent even when he asks her to reply. But when he insists, she says, 'I am not saying anything of the sort', mumbling with indistinct syllables and unclear meaning. And smiling at the man, she glances at him sideways from time to time.
That is how he gets her to talk. 21 And when she has become accustomed to him in this way, without speaking she places near him the betel, scented oil, and garland that he has asked for. Or she ties them up in his upper cloth.
22While she is occupied in doing this, he touches her nipples with the 'goose-flesh' scratch.* 23And if she stops him, he says, 'Embrace me, and then I will not do this', and so he embraces her. And he moves his hand as far as her navel and back again. And gradually he gets her onto his lap and goes farther and farther.
Cycle 839
If she does not accept his advances, he threatens her, 24saying, 'I myself will put the marks of my teeth on your lower lip, and the scratches of my nails on the upper part of your breasts. And I will do the same to myself, and, in front of your girlfriends, I will tell the story that you did it. What will you say about that?' And in this way he gradually seduces her with the tricks that are used to frighten children and to reassure children.
25On the second and third nights, when she is a little more trusting, he works her with his hand 26and kisses her on every part of her body. 27 When he has placed his hand on her thighs and succeeded in caressing them, he moves his hand upward in stages and caresses her even where her thighs join her torso. If she restrains him from caressing her, he unsettles her by saying, 'What wrong am I doing?' and continues doing it until she has become used to it.
And when he has succeeded in this, he touches her hidden places. 28Then he loosens her waistband, unties its knot, puts aside her clothes, and caresses her where her thighs join her torso. And all of these things he does under other pretexts.
Flow 840
Then he penetrates her and gives her sexual pleasure. But he should not break his vow before the right time. 29 He teaches her, demonstrates his love for her, and describes the wishes that he had in the past.
Cycle 159
He promises to do, in the future, whatever is to her liking. He breaks down her anxiety about her co-wives. Gradually, in time, when she is no longer a virgin, he makes advances to her without unsettling her.
That is how he wins the girl's trust. 30 And there are verses about this: A man who answers a young girl's true feelings in this way subdues her by a stratagem; and so she falls in love with him and begins to trust him. 31A man achieves success with virgins when he rubs them neither too much the right way* nor too much the wrong way; and so he conquers midway in between.
Ladder 841
32 If a man knows how to win a virgin's trust, awakening her love for him, he increases women's respect for him and becomes dear to them. 33 But if a man neglects a virgin because he thinks, 'She is too bashful', she despises him as a beast,* for she thinks, 'He does not understand my intentions.' 34 Or if a man who does not understand a virgin's true feelings makes advances to her, even by force, she experiences, all at once, fear, trembling, anxiety, and hatred.
35 If she does not experience the pleasures of love or if he pollutes her with anxiety, she becomes a man-hater or, hated,* she leaves him for another man.
Flow 160
Ladder 161
Compare 162
Hub 163
Cycle 164
THREE Making Advances to a Young Girl [26]
1 But a man who has good qualities but no money, or who has indifferent qualities but no opportunities, or who has money but is a neighbour, or a man who is dependent on his mother, father, and brothers, or who is regarded as a child and welcomed as a guest, should not court a virgin, because he will not get her. 2From childhood on, however, all by himself he may make her fall in love with him.
Flow 165
[26] Making Advances to a Young Girl
1 But a man who has good qualities but no money, or who has indifferent qualities but no opportunities, or who has money but is a neighbour, or a man who is dependent on his mother, father, and brothers, or who is regarded as a child and welcomed as a guest, should not court a virgin, because he will not get her. 2From childhood on, however, all by himself he may make her fall in love with him. 3A man in such circumstances, living as a child with the family of his mother's brother in the South under humiliating arrangements, separated from his mother and father, may win the daughter of his mother's brother even if her wealth raises her so far above him as to make her unattainable, even if she has already been given to another man.
Compare 842
4He may also set his sights on another girl outside the family. 5Ghotakamukha says, 'Since making such a girl fall in love in this way achieves religious aims, it is to be praised.' 6 He gathers flowers with her, strings beads, plays house, puts on puppet shows, and prepares things to eat and drink, all in a manner appropriate to their familiarity and their age. 7And with her and qualified servants and women servants, he plays the games of that region that are right for her, such as dice, board games, the games of the fist, of the little finger, of the middle finger; and the game of grabbing six pebbles.
8And with her girlfriends he plays other, livelier local games, such as 'eyes shut tight', 'the start', 'the line of salt', 'striking the wind', 'heaps of wheat', and 'finger-tips'.* 9 He wins the inalienable love of the girl whom he thinks she trusts, and learns all about her intimate girlfriends. 10He treats the girl's foster-sister* with the greatest love and consideration, for, if she likes him, even if she recognizes his intentions she does not warn anyone against him but works to unite him with the girl.
Hub 843
Even if she is not asked, she can be a kind of teacher, 11for even if she does not recognize his intentions, she advertises his good qualities because of her love for him, so that the woman he wants falls in love with him. 12When the woman he wants is eager to have something, he finds out about it and gets it for her. 13Playthings that she has not had before, that the other girls seldom get, he produces for her with no apparent effort.
Cycle 844
14For example, he shows her a ball with many streaks in different colours close together, one after another; and then dolls made of string, wood, horn, and ivory, and things made of beeswax, flour, and clay. 15And he demonstrates for her the kitchenware used to cook food. 16Within the range of his powers, he sends her, secretly, two little penises* carved in wood, and a man and a woman joined together; goats and sheep, and little houses for the families of gods, all made of clay, bamboo, and wood; cages for parrots, cuckoos, love-birds, quails, pheasants, and partridges; water-pots in various forms; mechanical toys; lutes; oysters; cosmetics such as red lac, red arsenic, yellow arsenic, red mercury sulphide, and black collyrium; sandalwood paste and saffron; and, in the course of time, areca nuts and betel leaves for betel.
And openly he gives her more public things. He works hard to ensure that she will regard him as someone who will fulfil all of her wishes. 17Secretly he strives to see her, and thus starts a conversation.
Flow 845
18He announces that the reason for his secret gifts to her is his fear of her parents, and, 'because another man may want to have one of those gifts'. 19As her love for him grows, if she has a mind for storytelling he charms her by telling stories that have meaning for her and that steal her heart. 20If marvellous things can impress her, he astonishes her by performing magic tricks.
Ladder 846
If she is curious about the fine arts, he impresses her by his skill in them; if she is fond of singing, he captivates her ear with songs. On the full moon night in the rainy season, on the eighth day of the waning half of the month in autumn, and on the full moon night in winter; at celebrations, festivals, eclipses, or homecomings, he impresses her with various sorts of coloured chaplets, ear ornaments, and rare pearls, and with gifts of clothing, rings, and jewellery, as long as he thinks that this will not make trouble for her.
Ladder 166
21 If the girl's foster-sister has had some experience of men and so knows that he is different from other men, he teaches her the sixty-four techniques.* 22And by teaching them to the foster-sister he demonstrates to the woman he wants his own skill in giving sexual pleasure. 23He dresses richly and makes sure that she has an unobstructed view of him; he finds out if she has erotic feelings for him by observing her gestures and signals. 24For it is commonly said: 'Young women desire right from the start a man whom they know well and see all the time, but, even when they desire him, they do not make advances.' That is how a man makes advances to a young girl.
Compare 167
[27] Interpreting her Gestures and Signals
25 Let us now talk about those gestures and signals. 26 She does not look at him face to face. When he looks at her, she acts embarrassed.
She reveals the splendid parts of her body, under some pretext. She looks at the man when he is otherwise distracted, cannot see her, or has gone past her. 27When questioned about something, she replies by smiling, lowering her head, and mumbling indistinctly, with unclear meaning, very softly.
She delights in staying near him for a long time. When she is some distance from him, she speaks to her attendants in an altered tone of voice, hoping that he will look at her. And she does not leave that place.
Compare 847
28When she sees something or other, she laughs and begins to tell a story about it in order to stay there for a while. She kisses and hugs a child on her lap. She paints the auspicious dot on the forehead of her servant woman.
Hub 848
With her attendants as an audience, she imitates gracefully this and that mannerism of his. 29She confides in his friends, pays attention to their advice and follows it. She befriends his attendants, talks with them, and plays dice with them.
And she instructs them in their own duties as if she were in charge of them. When one of them tells another stories about the man, she listens very carefully. 30 Encouraged by her foster-sister, the girl enters the man's house.
Cycle 849
Placing the foster-sister between them, she offers to play dice with him, or some other game, or just to chat. When she is not dressed up she avoids letting him see her. When he asks her for her ear-ornament or ring or garland, she takes it off her body, very slowly, and puts it in his friend's hand.
Flow 850
Anything that he gives her she wears all the time. When there is talk of another suitor, she becomes dejected and will have nothing to do with people of that suitor's faction. 31 There are two verses about this: When a man sees these gestures and signals full of erotic feeling, he starts thinking of various ways to make love with that virgin.
Hub 168
32 A man wins a young girl by children's games, a woman in the prime of youth, by the arts, and a mature, affectionate woman, by winning over the people she trusts.*
Cycle 169
Flow 170
Ladder 171
Compare 172
FOUR The Advances that a Man Makes on his Own [28]
1 When he has seen a virgin's gestures and signals, he uses some method to make advances to her. 2During a game of dice or some other game, he disagrees with her and takes her hand, with a meaningful expression on his face.
Hub 173
[28] The Advances that a Man Makes on his Own
1 When he has seen a virgin's gestures and signals, he uses some method to make advances to her. 2During a game of dice or some other game, he disagrees with her and takes her hand, with a meaningful expression on his face. 3He follows the rules for the embraces that have been described, beginning with the 'touching' embrace.* 4He cuts a leaf into the shape of an embracing couple and shows it to her to suggest his own intentions, 5and, from time to time, he shows her other shapes of this sort.
Ladder 851
6When they are playing in the water, he dives underwater at some distance from her, comes up close to her, touches her, and dives underwater again right there. 7In games like 'new leaves',* he confesses his special erotic feelings, 8and he tells her about his suffering, without explaining it, 9and about an erotic dream, pretending that it was about another woman. 10At a theatrical spectacle or in a group of her people he sits down near her and finds some excuse to touch her.
11He presses his foot against her foot as if to use it as a footrest. 12Then he touches her toes, one by one, little by little, 13and presses the tips of her toenails with his big toe. 14If he succeeds in this, he wants more, step by step.
Compare 852
15And he keeps doing it so that she eventually tolerates it. 16 When she is washing his feet, he presses her fingers by using his toes as a pincer. 17Whenever he gives her anything or receives anything from her, he invests it with erotic feeling.
Hub 853
18When he has washed out his mouth, he sprinkles her with the water. 19When the two of them are seated in a deserted or dark place, he makes her let him do what he wants, or when they are lying down in the same place. 20There he lets her know his true feelings, without distressing her.
21'I have something to tell you in private', he says, and there he demonstrates his feelings without speaking (as we will describe in the discussion of other men's wives). 22But if he knows her feelings, by faking an illness he gets her to come to his own home to bring him news. 23When she comes to him, he gets her to rub his head; and he takes her hand and places it, feelingly, on his eyes and forehead.
Cycle 854
24Under the pretext of preparing medicines, he charges her with something to do, 25saying, 'You must do this, for no one but a virgin can do it.' And when she leaves, he lets her go only after getting her to promise to return. 26He uses this method for three nights and three twilights. 27When she comes to him, he stretches out their conversation in order to see her again and again.
Flow 855
28Even with other women present, he makes more and more advances to her to win her trust (though he does not tell her with words). 29'For', says Ghotakamukha, 'even a man whose feelings have gone far does not succeed with virgins by remaining indifferent.' 30But only when he thinks that he has succeeded quite well with her does he start to make advances. 31It is commonly said: 'In the evening, at night, and in darkness, women's fears are muted, they resolve to make love, they are full of passion, and they will not refuse a man.
Cycle 174
Therefore this is the time to have them.' 32 But if there are no advances that a man can make on his own, he gets her girlfriend or foster-sister-who knows his purpose and is close to the girl but does not tell her his purpose-to bring the girl to his arms. Then he makes advances to her as has been described above. 33Or he can get one of his own servant women to make friends with her at the very start.
34At a sacrifice, a wedding, a pageant, a festival, a disaster, in the crowd engaged in watching a theatrical spectacle, and here and there, he sees her gestures and signals,* tests her feelings for him, gets her alone and makes advances to her. 35Vatsyayana says: Women who have revealed their feelings and who are propositioned at the right time and place never turn away. Those are the advances that a man makes on his own.
Flow 175
[29] The Advances that a Virgin Makes to the Man She Wants
36 A virgin may have good qualities but only modest opportunities; or she may come from a good family but have no money and therefore not be sought by the men who are her peers; or she may have been separated from her mother and father, or live in the family of her relatives. When such a virgin reaches the prime of her youth, all by herself, she tries to get married.* 37With a childlike love she makes advances to a good-looking, strong young man of good qualities.
Ladder 856
38Or if there is someone of whom she thinks, 'Disregarding the opinions of his mother and father, this man will fall for me all by himself, because his flesh is weak', she takes possession of him by doing him favours that please him and by seeing him all the time. 39Her mother, with her girlfriends and foster-sisters, keeps her in his sight. 40With flowers, perfumes, and betel in her hand she stays near him in deserted places at odd times.
In demonstrating her skill in the fine arts, or in massaging him or scratching his head, she shows how experienced she is. She tells stories that are tuned to the nature of the man she wants, and she behaves as has been described in the discussion of making advances to a young girl.* 41 Scholars say: 'Not even when she is very close to him should she herself make advances to a man. For a young woman who makes advances to a man herself destroys her luck in love.' 42But she goes along with his advances, 43and when he embraces her she betrays no emotional excitement.
Compare 857
She receives his signals blandly, as if she did not understand them. Only when he forces her does she let him grasp her mouth. 44When he begs her to imagine his sexual arousal, only with great difficulty can she bear any touching of the hidden places.*45 And even when he begs her, she is not very open with him, because time is uncertain and changeable.
Hub 858
46But when she thinks, 'He is in love with me and will not turn away', only then does she urge the man who is making advances to her to free her from her state of childhood. 47And when she has lost her virginity, she reveals this to the people she trusts. Those are the advances that a virgin makes to the man she wants.
Ladder 176
[30] The Advances that Win a Virgin
48 And there are verses about this: But a virgin who is pursued chooses to marry the man who, she thinks, will support her and give her pleasure, who will do what she likes and is in her power. 49 When greed for money makes a virgin marry a man without considering his good qualities, his appearance, or his experience, or even the rivalries among his other wives, 50 then she will not entice a man who has good qualities, a strong man who is in her power, who seeks her with all his might and makes advances to her with various methods.
51 Better even a poor man in her power, even a man without good qualities, who supports himself alone, than a husband who has many people to support, even if he has good qualities. 52 The wives of rich men are generally many and headstrong, and even though they have superficial enjoyments, their pleasure, too, is superficial, for they have no intimate trust. 53 But if a man who is of low birth makes advances, or a greybeard, or a man inclined to travel abroad, he is not fit for union.
Cycle 859
54 Nor is a man fit for union who makes advances on a whim, or who is addicted to dishonest gambling, or who has a wife and children. 55 One wooer should be wooed among suitors who have the same good qualities: this suitor is the best because his very nature is love.
Compare 177
Hub 178
Cycle 179
Flow 180
FIVE Devious Devices for Weddings [31]
1 When it is virtually impossible for a man to see a virgin alone, he insinuates himself into intimacy* with her foster-sister by giving her pleasing things and doing favours for her. 2Pretending not even to know the man, the foster-sister gets the girl to fall in love with him because of his good qualities.
Ladder 181
[31] Devious Devices for Weddings
1 When it is virtually impossible for a man to see a virgin alone, he insinuates himself into intimacy* with her foster-sister by giving her pleasing things and doing favours for her. 2Pretending not even to know the man, the foster-sister gets the girl to fall in love with him because of his good qualities. She describes mostly the man's qualities that are pleasing to the girl, 3and she emphasizes the faults of the other suitors that especially conflict with the girl's desires, 4with her parents' greed and lack of understanding of good qualities, and with the fickleness of her relatives.
Flow 860
5And she tells the girl stories about other virgins of equal caste, such as Shakuntala, who found a husband by their own resolve and made love with great joy,* 6while women in illustrious families are likely to be oppressed by co-wives, hated, miserable, and rejected. 7She describes what the future would be like with him; 8she describes the unblemished happiness and the man's love for his one and only wife. 9To a girl who wants him, she gives reasons that dispel her fear of danger, anxiety, and embarrassment.
10She performs all the functions of a messenger. 11By saying, 'The man will take you by force, as if you knew nothing about it', she gets her to say, 'Yes, that would be entirely acceptable.' 12 When the girl has been won over and waits for him in the place of assignation, the man marries her by taking consecrated fire from the house of a Brahmin who knows the Veda, spreading sacred grass on the ground, making an offering of oblations in accordance with the ritual texts, and circumambulating the fire three times.
Ladder 861
13Only then does he inform her mother and her father,* 14because the scholars' rule says, 'Weddings witnessed by the consecrated fire cannot be revoked.' 15And after he has taken her maidenhead, he gradually informs his own people. 16Then he gets her relatives to give her to him, in order to wipe out the stain on the family honour and out of fear of reprisals. 17Immediately, he wins over her relatives with endearing gifts and by his love.
Compare 862
18That is how he carries out a love-match wedding.* 19 If he is not winning her over, he enlists the help of another girl of good family, who moves freely between both houses, who is affectionate and was in the past intimate, and he has her bring the girl with her to an accessible place on some pretext. 20Then he brings the fire from the house of a Brahmin who knows the Veda, and so forth, just the same as above.
21If a wedding is to take place soon, he makes the girl's mother regret it because of the faults in the other groom that he brings to her attention, 22and then, with the mother's permission, the man is brought to a neighbour's house at night, and he brings the fire from the house of a Brahmin who knows the Veda, and so forth, just the same as above. 23Or the girl may have a brother of the same age as the man, who is addicted to courtesans and to the wives of other men; the man wins his love by doing him endearing favours and giving him help in difficult affairs, for a very long time.
Hub 863
In the end, he confides his intentions to him. 24For in general, young men will even give up their lives for the sake of contemporaries of the same character, vices, and age. Therefore, the brother is the one that he gets to bring her to an accessible place on some pretext, and so forth, just the same as above.
Cycle 864
25 And on festivals such as the eighth day of the waning half of the month in autumn, her foster-sister gives her an intoxicating drink and, on the pretext of something that she herself has to do, brings her to the man in an accessible place. There, when the drink has made her unconscious, he takes her maidenhead, and so forth, just the same as above. 26 Or when she is sleeping alone (because he has kept her foster-sister away), while she is unconscious, he takes her maidenhead, and so forth, just the same as above.* 27 Or when the man finds out that she has gone to another village or to a park, he comes there with a strong force of helpers and frightens off or murders the guards, and carries off the virgin.* Those are the devious devices for weddings.
Compare 182
28 With regard to maintaining religion, each form of wedding is better than the one that follows it; but each time the preceding one is not possible, the following one should be used.* 29 For since mutual love is the fruit of wedding rites, therefore even the love-match wedding, though of middling rank, is respected as a means to a good end. 30 Indeed, the love-match wedding is regarded as the best of all, because it gives pleasure and costs little trouble and no formal courtship, and because its essence is mutual love.
Hub 183
Cycle 184
Flow 185
Ladder 186
Compare 187
Hub 188
ONE The Life of an Only Wife [32]
1 An only wife, with deep, intimate trust, treats her husband like a god and always acts in ways compatible with him. 2Following his thinking, she takes on herself his cares about the household.
Cycle 189
[32] The Life of an Only Wife
1 An only wife, with deep, intimate trust, treats her husband like a god and always acts in ways compatible with him. 2Following his thinking, she takes on herself his cares about the household. 3She keeps the house clean and heart-warming to look at, with well-polished surfaces, all sorts of floral arrangements, and smooth and shiny floors, and she makes sure that offerings are made three times a day and that the gods in the family shrine are properly honoured.
Flow 865
4For, Gonardiya says,* 'Nothing holds the heart of householders like this.' 5She treats the man's older relatives, servants, sisters, and sisters' husbands according to their merits. 6 In well-weeded plots of ground she sees to the planting of beds of herbs and green vegetables, and clumps of sugar-cane, and patches of cumin-seed and caraway, mustard seed, parsley, soy-beans, and bay-trees; 7and musk rose, gooseberry, white-flowered Indian jasmine, Spanish jasmine, red amaranth, Arabian jasmine, East Indian rose bay, Adam's apple, China rose, and other flowers, as well as other plants that make a great display, such as Indian lemon grass, beard-grass, and scurvy grass.
Ladder 866
13She does not let the man see her alone when she is not wearing make-up and jewellery. 14If he has spent too much or spent the wrong amount, she tells him in private. 15Only with his permission does she go to a betrothal, a wedding, or a sacrifice, or get together with her girlfriends, or visit the gods.
Compare 867
16In any game, she follows his lead. 17She lies down after him, gets up before him, and never wakes him up when he is asleep. 18She keeps the kitchen well guarded and well lit.
19Mildly offended by the man's infidelities,* she does not accuse him too much, 20but she scolds him with abusive language when he is alone or among friends. She does not, however, use love-sorcery worked with roots,* 21for, Gonardiya says, 'Nothing destroys trust like that.' 22She refrains from bad language, nasty looks, talking while avoiding his gaze, standing at the doorway or gazing from it, chatting in the park, and lingering in deserted places. 23She guards against her own sweat, dirty teeth, and bad body odour, for these cool his passion.
Hub 868
24When she goes to him to make love, she wears gorgeous jewellery, a variety of flowers and scented oils, and a dress dazzling with many different tints. 25Her everyday dress is made of delicate, smooth, thin silk, with a modest amount of jewellery, good perfume but not too much of scented oils, and flowers both white and of other colours. 26When the man fasts or follows a vow, she herself also undertakes this for her own purpose; if he tries to stop her, she refutes his arguments, saying, 'I am not going to be thwarted in this matter.' 27 When the price is right, at the right time, she buys household goods made of clay, bamboo, wood, leather, and iron.
Cycle 869
28She lays in a stock of salt and oil as well as hard-to-get perfumes, spices, and medicines, and keeps them hidden within the house. 29And she buys, and sows at the proper season, the seeds of all sorts of edible plants, such as radishes, arrowroot, ginger, wormwood, mangoes, melons, cucumbers, eggplants, pumpkins, squashes, round yams, trumpet-flowers, horse-eye beans, sesame, sandalwood, glory-tree, garlic, and onions. 30She does not tell other people about her own assets or about her husband's counsels.
Flow 190
31She surpasses all the women of her group in her skill, her dazzling appearance, her cooking, her pride, and her services. 32She calculates the year's income and adjusts the expenditure to it. 33She makes butter from the milk left over from meals, and also from sesame oil and molasses.
She spins threads from cotton balls and then weaves cloth with those threads. She collects string-bags, cords, ropes, and bark-fibres; she oversees the grinding and pounding; when rice is boiled, she makes use, afterwards, of the water, the froth, the husks, the uncooked kernels, and the coals. She knows the servants' wages and maintenance.
She sees to the tilling of the fields, the care of the cattle, and the upkeep of the carriages. She looks after the rams, cocks, quails, parrots, pheasants, cuckoos, peacocks, monkeys, and deer. And she prepares the daily portions of income and expenditures.
Flow 870
37She serves her father-in-law and mother-in-law, remaining dependent on them; she does not answer back to them, but makes brief, never harsh conversation, not laughing too loud, and treats those who are dear and not dear to them as if they were dear and not dear to her. 38She is moderate in her enjoyments. 39She is considerate to servants, 40but never gives anything to anyone without telling the man.
41She instructs each servant in the limits of his own work and honours him on festival days. That is the life of an only wife. [33] Her Behaviour during his Absence 42 When he is away on a journey, she wears only jewellery that has religious meaning and power, devotes herself to fasts dedicated to the gods, waits for news, and manages the household.
Ladder 871
43She sleeps at the feet of older relatives and their people, and accomplishes her tasks with their approval. She goes to great pains to acquire and look after things that the man wants. 44She spends the usual amount on undertakings for daily tasks and special occasions.
Ladder 191
She also sets her mind on accomplishing those undertakings that he has begun. 45She does not go to the family of her own relatives except on occasions of disaster or celebration. And even there she is chaperoned by the man's servants, she does not stay too long, and she does not change out of the clothing that she wears when the man is absent.
46She fasts with the permission of older relatives. She increases capital and decreases expenditures as much as possible, by authorizing buying and selling to be accomplished by incorruptible servants carrying out orders. 47 When he returns, she appears to him first in her ordinary clothes, and she honours the gods and brings gifts.
Compare 872
That is her life during his absence. 48 And there are two verses about this: An only wife who wishes for her man's welfare adapts herself to his behaviour, whether she is a woman of good family, a second-hand woman, or even a courtesan. Women of good behaviour achieve the goals of religion, power, and pleasure, a firm position, and a husband without a co-wife.
Compare 192
Hub 193
Cycle 194
Flow 195
Ladder 196
TWO The Senior Wife [34]
1 If his wife is frigid or promiscuous or unlucky in love, or if she continually fails to bear a child or gives birth only to daughters, or if the man is fickle, he supplants her with a co-wife.* 2Therefore, from the very start, a woman tries to avoid this by making known her devotion, good character, and cleverness. And if she does not have children, she herself is the one to urge him to take a co-wife.
Compare 197
[34] The Senior Wife
1 If his wife is frigid or promiscuous or unlucky in love, or if she continually fails to bear a child or gives birth only to daughters, or if the man is fickle, he supplants her with a co-wife.* 2Therefore, from the very start, a woman tries to avoid this by making known her devotion, good character, and cleverness. And if she does not have children, she herself is the one to urge him to take a co-wife. 3And when she is being supplanted, by applying all her powers she establishes her own position as higher.
Hub 873
4 She looks upon the newly arrived woman as a sister. Making an extraordinary effort, she helps her dress and make herself up in the evening, and she makes sure that the man knows about this. She pays no attention if the other woman becomes hostile or haughty as a result of her luck in love.
5She disregards it if the other woman makes a mistake with her husband. Then, if she thinks, 'This is a mistake that she herself will also mend', she advises her carefully about it. 6But she reveals further particulars about it to the man, privately.
Cycle 874
7 She treats the other woman's children in no special way,* treats her servants with great sympathy and her girlfriends with affection. She does not care too much for her own relatives, and makes an extra fuss over the other woman's relatives. 8But if she is supplanted by many co-wives, she allies herself with the one just below her.
Flow 875
9She provokes quarrels between the woman whom the man wishes to promote to the favourite and the woman who used to be lucky in love, 10a woman for whom she then shows sympathy. 11By uniting the other co-wives, without actually getting into the argument herself she maligns the one he wants to promote to the favourite. 12But she encourages the other woman to quarrel with the man, egging her on by taking her side.
13And she makes the quarrel grow. 14Or, if she notes that the quarrel is dying down, she herself fans the flames. 15But if she realizes, 'The man even now inclines to her', then she herself makes peace between them.
Ladder 876
That is the life of the senior wife.
Hub 198
[35] The Junior Wife
16 The junior wife, however, regards her co-wife like a mother. 17She does not even give anything to her relatives without the other woman's knowledge. 18She reports her own experiences to her.
19With her permission, she sleeps with the husband. 20She never reports to any other woman what the other woman says. 21She has more regard for the other woman's children than for her own.
22But privately, she serves the husband more. 23And she does not tell him how she herself suffers from the hostility of the co-wives. 24She tries to get some special secret token of her husband's esteem, 25and she says, 'I will live on this, as if it were food to last me on a journey.' 26But she never talks in public about that, either in boast or in passion, 27for a woman who betrays a secret wins her husband's loathing.
28Gonardiya says, 'Out of fear of the senior wife, she seeks only a secret love-token.' 29 If the senior wife is unlucky in love and has no children, the junior wife pities her and urges the man to pity her. 30But if the junior wife is able to dislodge the senior wife, she assumes the role of the only wife. That is the life of the junior wife.
Cycle 199
[36] The Second-hand Woman
31 A second-hand woman, however, is a widow who is tormented by the weakness of the senses and so finds, again, a man who enjoys life and is well endowed with good qualities.* 32But the followers of Babhravya say, 'Since she may at will go away again from him too, thinking, "He is not well endowed with good qualities", she will then want yet another man.' 33It is in search of physical pleasure that she tries, again, to find yet another man. 34Gonardiya says, 'Complete pleasure comes from men's endowments and capacity for enjoyments; therefore one man differs from another.'* 35Vatsyayana says: It is because his mind is compatible with hers.
Compare 877
36 With her relatives, she gets the man to provide sufficient funds to cover the cost of such things as drinking parties, picnics, faith offerings, and gifts to honour friends. 37Or she may pay for his jewellery and her own out of her own capital. 38There is no rule about love-gifts.
39If she leaves the man of her own accord, she gives back everything he has given her except for his love-gifts. But if he throws her out, she does not give anything back. 40She takes over his house as if she were the woman in charge, 41but she acts with affection to women of good families, 42with consideration to the servants, always joking, and with great respect for his friends.
Hub 878
In the arts,* she has skill and greater knowledge. 43When there are occasions for a quarrel, she herself scolds the man. 44She practises the sixty-four arts of love in private.
And she herself does favours for the co-wives. She gives jewellery to their children and makes little ornaments for them, and clothing, with care, but she expects those children to serve her as if she were their master. She gives even more things to his entourage and his crowd of friends.
And she is always in the mood for company, for drinking parties, picnics, festivals, and amusements. That is the life of the second-hand woman.
Flow 200
[37] The Wife Unlucky in Love
45 But a woman who is unlucky in love and oppressed by rivalry with her co-wives seeks support from the wife who seems to be chosen most often by their husband. She shows that chosen wife the knowledge of the arts that can be revealed. Because she is unlucky in love, she has no secrets.* 46She performs the functions of a nurse for the man's children.
47She wins over his friends and then gets them to tell him about her devotion to him. 48She leads the way in religious duties and in vows and fasts. 49She is considerate to the servants and has no more regard for herself than for them.
Cycle 879
50In bed, she requites the man's passion in a way that suits him. 51She does not scold him or show him any contrariness. 52She restores his desire for any woman with whom he may have quarrelled.
53If he desires some woman who must remain concealed, she brings the other woman to him and hides her. 54She takes pains to make the man regard her as a chaste and undeceiving wife. That is the life of the wife unlucky in love.*
Ladder 201
[38] Women of the Harem
55 The life of the women of the harem, too, can be surmised from the preceding sections. 56 The woman chamberlain or bodyguard* brings their garlands, scented oils, and clothes to the king, saying, 'The queens have sent these.' 57The king takes these and gives them back to the queens as a gift, like the leftovers* of a deity. 58In the afternoon, he goes, carefully dressed, to see, all together, all the women of the harem, who are also well dressed.
59He chats and jokes with them, giving to each one the place and honour due to the time she has served in the harem and her worth. 60Immediately after that, he sees, in exactly the same way, the second-hand women, 61and then the courtesans and the dancing girls who belong to the harem. 62Their places are in the inner rooms assigned to them.
Flow 880
63 Now, when the king arises from his afternoon siesta, the women attendants who keep track of the roster come to him followed by the servants of the woman whose turn it is to spend the night with the king, of the woman who has been passed over on her night, and of the woman who is in her fertile season. And they present the king with scented oils, each marked with the stamp of the woman's seal ring, and tell him whose turn it is to sleep with him that night and who is in her fertile season.
64Whichever one among these oils the king takes, he announces that the woman who owns it will sleep with him that night. 65 At festivals, and at concerts and plays, all of the women of the harem are appropriately honoured and served with drinks. 66They do not go out, nor do women from outside enter, except for those whose purity is well known.
And so the work is carried out undisturbed. Those are the women of the harem.
Compare 202
A Man’s Management of Many Women
67 And there are verses about this: But a man who has collected many wives must treat them equally. He should not treat them with contempt, nor put up with their deceptions. 68 Whatever sort of love-play one woman favours, or whatever peculiarity her body may have, or whatever reproach she lets slip in pillow talk- he must not tell that to the other women.
69 He should never give women their head in a cause against a co-wife, and if one woman begins to slander another in this way, he should charge her herself with those faults. 70 He should keep his women happy, one by confiding in her privately, another by honouring her in public, yet another with gifts as tokens of his esteem. 71 He should enchant each one individually, with picnics, luxuries, gifts, honours to her family, and with the pleasures of love in bed.
Ladder 881
72 A young woman who controls her temper and behaves according to the textbook puts her husband in her power and lords it over her co-wives.
Hub 203
Cycle 204
ONE On the Characteristic Natures of Women and Men [39]
1 The reasons for having affairs with the wives of other men have already been discussed. 2A man must consider, from the very beginning, whether such women can be won, and without disaster, and whether they are eligible for sex, and what their future will be, and how they behave.
Flow 205
[39] On the Characteristic Natures of Women and Men
1 The reasons for having affairs with the wives of other men have already been discussed. 2A man must consider, from the very beginning, whether such women can be won, and without disaster, and whether they are eligible for sex, and what their future will be, and how they behave. 3For when a man sees that his desire is progressing from one stage to the next stage, then, in order to ward off these fatal blows to his own body, he should make advances to other men's wives.
Compare 882
4Now, there are ten stages of desire, 5and their signs are: love at first sight, the attachment of the mind and heart, the stimulation of the imagination, broken sleep, weight loss, revulsion against sensual objects, the loss of all sense of shame, madness, loss of consciousness, and death. 6Scholars say: 'In considering an affair with another man's wife, a young woman's bearing and telltale signs are the basis on which to judge her character, honesty, purity, accessibility, and the fierceness of her sexual energy.' 7Vatsyayana says: Because relying on a woman's bearing and telltale signs is fallible, a man should understand a woman's conduct from her gestures and signals.
8Gonikaputra says, 'A woman desires any attractive man she sees, and, in the same way, a man desires a woman. But, after some consideration, the matter goes no farther.' 9A woman is different in this regard: 10A woman does not consider religion or the violation of religion; she just desires. But consideration of some other factor keeps her from making advances.
Hub 883
11And by her very nature she resists a man who makes advances to her, even if she desires to respond. 12If he makes advances to her again and again, however, she gives in. 13A man, by contrast, considers the stability of religion and the conventions of noble people and turns back even when he desires.
Cycle 884
14And even when he is pursued he does not give in, because he is aware of these considerations. 15He makes advances for no special reason, and even when he has made his advances, he does not make them again. And he becomes indifferent toward her when she has given in.
16It is commonly said: 'A man scorns a woman who is easy to get, but desires a woman who is hard to get.'
Ladder 206
[40] Causes of Resistance
17Here are the causes of a woman's resistance: 18love for her husband, 19regard for her children, 20the fact that she is past her prime, 21or overwhelmed by unhappiness, 22or unable to get away; 23or she gets angry and thinks, 'He is propositioning me in an insulting way'; 24or she cannot imagine being with him, thinking, 'He is inscrutable'; 25or she fears, 'He will soon go away. There is no future in it; his thoughts are attached to someone else'; 26or she is nervous, thinking, 'He does not conceal his signals'; 27or she thinks, 'His affection is all for his friends, and his regard is only for them'; 28or she fears, 'His advances are just a tease'; 29or she is diffident, thinking, 'How glamorous he is'; 30or if she is a 'doe' she fears, 'His sexual energy is too fierce', or 'He is too strong';* 31or she becomes shy when she thinks, 'He is a man-about-town, accomplished in all the arts';* 32or she feels, 'He has always treated me just as a friend'; 33or she cannot bear him, thinking, 'He does not know the right time and place', 34or she does not respect him, thinking, 'He is an object of contempt'; 35or she despises him when she thinks, 'Even though I have given him signals, he does not understand'; 36or if she is an 'elephant cow' she thinks, 'He is a "hare", of dull sexual energy'; 37or she feels sympathy for him and thinks, 'I would not want anything unpleasant to happen to him because of me'; 38or she becomes depressed when she sees her own shortcomings, 39or afraid when she thinks, 'If I am discovered, my own people will throw me out'; 40or scornful, thinking, 'He has grey hair'; 41or she worries, 'My husband has employed him to test me'; 42or she has regard for religion.* 43A man should eliminate, from the very beginning, whichever of these causes for rejection he detects in his own situation.
44If it is connected with her nobility, he excites more passion. 45If it is a matter of apparent impossibility, he shows her ways to manage it. 46If the problem is her respect for him, he becomes very intimate with her.
Flow 885
47If it stems from her contempt, he demonstrates his extraordinary pride and his erudition. 48If it comes from his contempt, he prostrates himself before her. 49If she is afraid, he reassures her.
55 And there are two verses about this: Longing* springs from one's own nature but there are ways to make it grow. When intelligence has washed away anxiety, longing becomes unwavering and undying. 56 A man who knows his own chances of success and discerns women's telltale signs cuts away the causes of their resistance and succeeds with women.
Ladder 886
Compare 207
Hub 208
Cycle 209
Flow 210
Ladder 211
Compare 212
TWO Ways of Becoming Intimate [43]
1 Scholars say: 'A man can win virgins more easily through his own advances than through a female messenger, but he can win the wives of other men, who are in a more delicate situation, more easily through a female messenger than on his own.' 2Vatsyayana says: In all instances, if it is within the field of his powers, the man's own action is more effective, but if this is difficult or impossible to do, then he should employ a female messenger. 3It is commonly said: 'Women who are acting rashly for the first time, and who converse without restraint, can be seduced by a man on his own; women who are the opposite, by a messenger.' 4 But when the man makes advances by himself he must achieve intimacy from the very start.
Hub 213
[43] Ways of Becoming Intimate
1 Scholars say: 'A man can win virgins more easily through his own advances than through a female messenger, but he can win the wives of other men, who are in a more delicate situation, more easily through a female messenger than on his own.' 2Vatsyayana says: In all instances, if it is within the field of his powers, the man's own action is more effective, but if this is difficult or impossible to do, then he should employ a female messenger. 3It is commonly said: 'Women who are acting rashly for the first time, and who converse without restraint, can be seduced by a man on his own; women who are the opposite, by a messenger.' 4 But when the man makes advances by himself he must achieve intimacy from the very start.
Compare 887
5He sees her on a natural or contrived occasion. 6A natural occasion might occur near his own house, and a contrived one near the house of a friend, relative, minister of state, or doctor, at a wedding, sacrifice, festival, disaster, picnic, or other such occasion. 7When she sees him, he gazes at her constantly, sending signals, smoothing down his hair, snapping his nails, jingling his jewellery, chewing on his lower lip, and making various other pretences.
When she is looking he talks with his friends* about her under the pretext of discussing other matters; he displays his generosity and fondness for enjoyments. Seated on the lap of a friend, he shifts the position of his arms and legs, yawns, raises one eyebrow, speaks slowly, and listens to the woman's words. He carries on, with a child or another adult, a conversation that seems to be about something else but has a double meaning, about her; thus he himself conveys his wish for her.
Hub 888
And out of the intimacy gained by this means he strikes up a conversation with her, and making himself agreeable to someone who is able to talk with her, he uses that person to establish some reason for coming and going.
Cycle 889
And within her hearing, but without looking at her at all, he talks about the Kamasutra. 9 As he grows more intimate with her, he places in her hands something for her to keep temporarily for him and something else for her to keep for a long time, and every day, at any moment, he withdraws some small part of it-perfumes or areca nuts. 10Then he arranges for her to meet his own wives and engage in confidential conversations, sitting together by themselves.
11This is so that he can see her all the time and get her to trust him. 12When she desires something from the goldsmith, jeweller, basket-maker, dyer in indigo or saffron, and so forth, he himself, together with his own servants, takes the trouble to obtain these things for her. 13And while he is accomplishing that business, he can see her for a long time, and people will know about it.
Flow 890
Ladder 891
17In the course of doing this, he makes bets about such things and appoints her the umpire for these bets. 18But if he disagrees with her, he says, 'How amazing!'* Those are the ways of becoming intimate.
Cycle 214
Flow 215
[44] Making Advances
19 When she has become intimate with him and revealed her gestures and signals to him, he makes advances to her with the methods that are used on a virgin.* Generally the advances in that case are rather subtle, because virgins have not yet made love. But he makes advances to other women in the very same way, though quite blatantly, because these women have made love. 20When he has understood her signals and uncovered her favourable feelings for him, he uses her possessions as they share one another's objects of enjoyment.
21In the course of this sharing, they exchange precious perfumes, upper garments, flowers, and also rings. When she takes betel from his hand as he prepares to go to a social gathering, he asks for a flower from her hair. 22In doing this, he gives her, with signals, a precious, desirable perfume, in a container marked with the traces of his own nails and teeth.
Compare 892
23He whittles away her nervousness by making more and more advances to her. 24By degrees, he goes with her to a place where they are alone together, embraces her, kisses her, takes betel from her, and after giving it to her exchanges things with her and caresses her in her hidden places. 25 A man should never pursue one woman in a place where he is pursuing another.
26If a woman who has had an affair with him in the past lives there, he should placate her with loving conciliations. 27And there are two verses about this: The man should not mount any woman, even if she is very ready to be taken, in a place where the husband has been seen to stray toward another woman. 28 A wise man, aware of his own security, will not even think about a woman who is worried, well-guarded, afraid, or with her mother-in-law.
Ladder 216
Compare 217
Hub 218
Cycle 219
Flow 220
THREE Testing her Feelings [45]
[45] Testing her Feelings 1 When a man is making advances to a woman, he tests her behaviour, and this tests her feelings. And then he tailors his advances accordingly.
Ladder 221
CHAPTER THREE
[45] Testing her Feelings 1 When a man is making advances to a woman, he tests her behaviour, and this tests her feelings. And then he tailors his advances accordingly. 2If she does not reveal her intentions to him, he wins her through a female messenger.
Hub 893
3If she does not accept his advances, but keeps coming back to meet him, he knows that her mind is divided, and he wins her over gradually. 4If she does not accept his advances but lets him see her again when she dresses very carefully and comes to see him dressed that way, then he knows that he should take her by force in a place where they are alone together. 5A woman who tolerates many advances, but does not yield to him even after a long time, is a tease,* and is to be won by breaking off all intimacies, 6because the human heart is inconstant.
7If a woman avoids a man who is making advances, and neither comes to meet him nor refuses him, because of her pride in herself and her regard for his importance, she can be won only with difficulty, through great intimacy. He wins her over through a female messenger who knows her vulnerable spots. 8If she refuses him roughly when he makes advances, he should scorn her, 9but even if she acts roughly, he can win her if she shows her love.
Cycle 894
10 If a woman lets him touch her on some excuse but pretends not to notice it, because her mind is divided, she can be won by constancy and patience. 11When she is lying down near him, he pretends to be asleep and puts his hand on her. And she, too, pretends sleep, though she notices him.
Flow 895
But when she wakes up, she pushes him away, longing for more advances. 12This also applies to the placing of a foot on a foot. 13When this has progressed, he makes approaches to her by embracing her when she is asleep.* 14If she will not put up with that and gets up, but on the next day acts in her usual manner, he knows that she wants him to make advances to her.
If, however, she does not let him see her, he knows that he can win her only through a female messenger. 15Even if she does not let him see her for a long time but then comes to meet him and acts as usual, and gives him signs and sends him signals, he makes approaches to her. 16 Even if he has not made advances to her, she sends signals, and she reveals herself to him when they are alone.
Ladder 896
She trembles and stammers when she speaks. Her fingers and toes perspire, and her face perspires. She offers to rub the man's head and massage his thighs.
17Simultaneously the patient and the masseuse, with one hand she massages him and with the other arm she embraces him and indicates that she might touch him. As if astonished 18or blind with sleep, she remains still, closely embracing him with her two thighs and her two arms. She allows one place on her forehead to fall upon his two thighs.
Compare 222
When asked to massage the place where his thighs join his torso, this does not rub her the wrong way.* She puts one hand right there and does not move it. When he squeezes it hard with the pincer made of his legs, after a long time she takes it away. 19When she has accepted the man's advances in this way, she comes to him the next day to massage him again.
20 She does not get too close to him, nor does she push him away. 21When they are alone, she reveals her feelings to him openly and for no reason, and does not hide them even in places that are not concealed. 22If she is being enjoyed by a servant close to her, and she keeps on with that, even though she has understood the man's signals, then she can be won through a female messenger who knows her vulnerable spots.
23But if she still resists, then her intentions are questionable. That is how to test her feelings. 24 And there are verses about this: At first, he achieves intimacy, and then a conversation.
Hub 223
And in the course of the conversation
they understand one another's signals. 25 If a man sees, through a woman's replies, that she has grasped and accepted his signals, then, with no further hesitation, he makes advances to her. 26 If a woman immediately reveals her feelings through her signals, he can make advances to her quickly, right at first sight.
27 If a woman is given slippery signals but returns a candid answer, he realizes, 'She, too, can be won in a moment', for she longs ardently for sexual pleasure. 28 This subtle method has been prescribed for a woman who is firm, not bold, and who takes care to make tests. Candid women can simply be won.
Compare 897
Cycle 224
Flow 225
Ladder 226
Compare 227
Hub 228
FOUR The Duties of a Female Messenger [46]
Cycle 229
[46] The Duties of a Female Messenger
Hub 898
3The messenger inspires regret in the woman by saying, 'How could a girl like you have a husband like that?' 4And she says, 'You are lucky in love, but he is not fit even to be your servant.' 5And in the woman's presence, when true feelings are being revealed, she speaks relentlessly of the husband's dull sexual energy, jealousy, dishonesty, ingratitude, disinclination for enjoyment, stinginess, fickleness, and other things hidden in him. 6When she notices that a particular flaw disturbs the woman, that is the one she insists upon.
7If the woman is a 'doe', then it is not a flaw for him to be a 'hare', 8and similar arguments can be made for a 'mare' or an 'elephant cow'. 9 Gonikaputra says: 'When he has won the woman's trust in this way, if this is her first rash act or if she has a delicate nature, he seduces her through a female messenger.'* 10The messenger tells the woman about the man's accomplishments, how well he suits her, his sexual moves.* 11And as the woman reveals more and more of her true feelings, the messenger talks about the real purpose of her mission in a devious manner, with the following argument: 12'Listen, you are lucky in love, but this is an extraordinary thing.
Cycle 899
That man over there, the son of such a good family, is a lover who fell madly in love with you at first sight. Since he is very delicate by nature, and has never been afflicted like this before, by anyone else, he is suffering terribly, burning up. It is therefore quite possible that he will even die of this today.' That is how she describes him.
Flow 900
13If she succeeds in this, on the next day she tells her stories again, marking the favourable response in the woman's speech, face, and eyes. 14 As the woman listens, the messenger tells her well-known, relevant stories, about Ahalya, Avimaraka, Shakuntala, and others. 15She speaks of the man's sexual powers, his knowledge of the sixty-four arts, and his luck in love, and she describes how he has made love secretly with some praiseworthy woman, which may or may not have happened in the past.
16She notes the woman's signals, 17and when she sees her smile, she converses with her, 18and invites her to sit down. 19She asks her, 'Where have you been?' 'Where did you sleep? Eat?' 'Where did you spend time?' or 'What did you do?' 20She reveals herself to her when they are alone together.
Ladder 901
21She gets her to tell little stories. 22She sighs and yawns, thoughtfully. 24She remembers her at sacrifices and festivals.
25She lets the woman go only after she has promised to let the messenger see her again. 26The woman keeps the conversation going by saying to the messenger, 'You speak so well, but why are you telling me these terrible things?' 27The woman lists the man's faults, his dishonesty and fickleness. 28She herself does not tell how she saw him before or spoke with him, but she longs for the messenger to talk about it.
Flow 230
29When the messenger is telling her about the man's wishes, she laughs scornfully but does not scorn him. 30 When the messenger has understood the woman's signals she strengthens her resolve with recollections of the man. 31But if the woman is not familiar with him, the messenger snares her with stories about his good qualities and stories about his love for her.
32 Auddalaki says: 'Two people who have not become familiar with one another and have not sent one another signals have no use for a messenger.' 33The followers of Babhravya say: 'Two people who have sent one another signals, even if they are not familiar with one another, can use a messenger.' 34Gonikaputra says: 'Two people who are familiar with one another, even if they have not sent one another signals, can use a messenger.' 35Vatsyayana says: Even two people who have not sent one another signals and are not familiar with one another can use a messenger, because of their confidence in the messenger. 36 To such women, the messenger shows gifts that the man has sent, gifts that steal the heart, such as betel, perfumed oils, a garland, a ring, or a garment.
37These bear the traces of the man's nails and teeth, and various other marks, as his possessions. 38On the garment he draws, in saffron, hands cupped together in supplication. 39The messenger shows the woman leaves cut into shapes with the forms of various intentions, and ear ornaments and chaplets with letters written on leaves concealed within them, 40letters in which he tells of his own wishes.
Compare 902
And she gets the woman to send back gifts in return. 41When two people have accepted one another's gifts in this way, their meeting depends on their confidence in the female messenger. 42 The followers of Babhravya say: 'This meeting can take place on the occasion of visiting the gods, at a festival, playing in a park, bathing or swimming, at a wedding, a sacrifice, disaster, or festival, the spectacle of a house on fire, the commotion after a robbery, the invasion of the countryside by an army, at theatrical spectacles, or in various sorts of activities.'* 43Gonikaputra says, 'A meeting is easy to arrange in the houses of a girlfriend, a beggar woman, a Buddhist nun, or a female ascetic.' 44Vatsyayana says: But in the woman's own house, where he knows the exits and entrances and where it is possible to devise in advance counter-measures against potential dangers, his arrival and departure are secured even at an unpredictable time, and the meeting is reliable and easy to arrange.
45 The types of female messengers are the fully authorized messenger, the messenger with limited authority, the letter carrier, the messenger acting for herself, the foolish messenger, the wife as messenger, the mute messenger, and the wind messenger. 46 The fully authorized messenger understands the goal that is in the minds of both the man and the woman and then by her own intelligence undertakes to bring it about. 47She is generally used by a man and a woman who are familiar with one another and have spoken together.
48She may be employed by the woman even if the couple are not familiar with one another and have not spoken together; 49or she may be employed, out of erotic curiosity, by two people who are suited to and appropriate for one another, even though they are not familiar with one another. 50 The messenger with limited authority knows just one part of the task and one part of the courtship, and completes the rest. 51She is used by two people who have sent one another signals but have seen one another only at long intervals.
Hub 903
52 The letter carrier just brings communications. 53She reports the time and place of the meeting for two people who are familiar with one another and whose feelings are deep. 54 The messenger acting for herself is sent as a messenger by another woman, but she herself seduces the man and, pretending not to know that she is seducing him, tells him how she dreamed about enjoying passionate sex with him; or she reproaches him for calling his wife by the wrong name,* and reviles his wife.
Ladder 231
Under this pretext, she expresses her own jealousy. Or she gives him something marked by her nails and teeth and says, 'I decided to give this first of all to you.' And when they are alone together she asks him, 'Who is lovelier, your wife or I?' 55He sees the messenger and receives her in a secluded place. 56A woman is also a messenger acting for herself if she makes an agreement with another woman under the pretext of serving as her messenger, but by means of carrying that woman's messages wins the man for herself and ruins that woman's chances.
57The man, too, is sometimes said to play that role and woo for himself when he is the messenger for another man. 58 The woman gets the confidence of the man's naïve wife,* enters in unhindered, and asks her about the man's doings. She teaches the wife tricks.
Cycle 904
She dresses her up in a way that sends signals to him. She gets her angry with him and says, 'This is how you must act.' And she herself makes the traces of nails and teeth on the wife. Through that means, the woman signals to the man.
She, the wife, is the foolish messenger, and 59he uses her to get the woman's replies. 60 Or the man gets his own foolish wife to get together with the woman to gain her confidence, and he uses her to send signals. He even has his wife talk to the woman about his skill and experience.
Flow 905
She is the wife as messenger, and he uses her to get the woman's signals. 61 Or he sends a young servant girl who knows nothing about wickedness on a project that is not at all wicked. But in the process he secretes a written message or the traces of his nails or of his teeth in a garland or an ear ornament.
She is the mute messenger, and he uses her to ask for the woman's replies. 62 A woman who is a neutral bystander may transmit a statement that bears the identifying mark of a previously arranged matter, that another person could not grasp, or that has both a common meaning and a special double meaning. She is the wind messenger, and he uses her to ask for the woman's replies.
Ladder 906
Those are the types of female messengers. 63 And there are verses about this: A widow, a fortune-teller, a servant girl, a beggar woman, and a woman artist quickly enter a woman's confidence and understand the duties of a messenger. 64 She inspires hatred of the husband, describes his sexual charms, and reveals the various enjoyments of sex, that other women, too, have had.* 65 And she describes the man's love for the woman, and, again, his skill in love-making, and tells how he is sought by great women, and remains constant.
Compare 232
66 The messenger, through her skill with words, can take even an unintended meaning uttered by mistake and twist it right around.
Hub 233
Cycle 234
Flow 235
Ladder 236
FIVE The Sex Life of a Man in Power [47]
1 Kings and ministers of state do not enter into other men's homes, for the whole populace sees what they do and imitates it. 2 The three worlds* watch the sun rise and so they too rise; then they watch the sun moving and they too start to act.
Compare 237
[47] The Sex Life of a Man in Power
1 Kings and ministers of state do not enter into other men's homes, for the whole populace sees what they do and imitates it. 2 The three worlds* watch the sun rise and so they too rise; then they watch the sun moving and they too start to act. 3 Therefore, because it is impossible and because they would be blamed, such men do nothing frivolous.
Compare 907
4But when they cannot help doing it, they employ stratagems. 5A young village headman, or a king's officer, or the son of the superintendent of farming, can win village women just with a word, and then libertines call these women adulteresses. 6Sex with these women takes place when they are engaged in such activities as doing chores, filling granaries, bringing things in and out of houses, cleaning house, working in the field, purchasing cotton, wool, flax, linen, and bark, spinning thread, and buying, selling, and exchanging goods.
7And in the same manner, the man in charge of the cow-herds may take the women of the cow-herds; 8the man in charge of threads* may take widows, women who have no man to protect them, and wandering women ascetics; 9the city police-chief may take the women who roam about begging, for he knows where they are vulnerable, because of his own night-roamings; 10and the man in charge of the market may take the women who buy and sell. 11 On occasions such as the eighth day of the waning half of the month in autumn, the full-moon night in winter, and the spring festival, the women of market-towns, cities, and mountain villages generally attend the parties of the women of the harem in the home of the man in power.
Hub 908
12There, when the drinking party is over, the women of the city go individually, each according to her intimacy with the women of the harem, to the houses devoted to enjoyments, where they sit and tell stories and are honoured and given drinks; and they go home by evening. 13 On such an occasion, a royal servant girl, who has already become acquainted with the woman whom the man wants, is sent there and talks with her. 14She enlists her by showing her lovely things.
Cycle 909
15Even before this, when the woman was still in her own home, the royal servant had said to her, 'While we are all at the party there, I will show you the lovely things that are in the king's mansion.' And then, at that time, she enlists the woman, saying, 'I will show you, outside, a floor inlaid with coral.' 16And there is a floor made of jewels, and a grove of trees, a vineyard, bath-houses and a rooftop porch, secret passages in the palace walls, paintings, tame deer, mechanical contrivances, cages of birds, tigers, and lions, all the things that she had described before. 17And when they are alone together, she tells the woman that the man in power is in love with her, 18and she describes his expertise in making love.
19She gets the woman to agree and not to tell anyone about their plan. 20 If she does not agree, the man in power comes to her himself, conciliates her with courtesies, makes love with her, reunites her with the servant girl, and then dismisses her lovingly. 21And he accustoms the woman's husband to receiving favours and after that has that man's wives brought into the harem all the time, to get him accustomed to it.
Flow 910
Then, on this occasion, a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before. 22 Or, a woman of the harem becomes friendly with the woman the man wants by sending her own servant woman to her. And when the friendship has progressed, she invites the woman to come and see her, under some pretext.
Ladder 911
When the woman has entered, and has been honoured and given drinks, a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before. 23 Or, if the woman the man wants is famous for a particular skill, a woman of the harem should treat her with courtesies and invite her to demonstrate that skill. When the woman has entered, a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before.
Hub 238
24 Or, a beggar woman says to the wife of a man who has lost all his money or is frightened, 'This woman of the harem, who has won over the king so that he does what she says, listens to my words. Because I am compassionate by nature, I will approach her and get her to let you enter. And she will reverse your husband's great loss of fortune.' When the woman agrees, the woman of the harem lets her enter two or three times and dispels the woman's fears.
And when the woman hears that she has nothing to be afraid of, she is overjoyed. Then a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before. 25This last stratagem is also prescribed for the wives of men who are seeking employment, oppressed by ministers of state, seized by force, weak in practical skills, dissatisfied with their own possessions, hoping to become friends with the king, striving for a rank among the royal families, harassed by their relatives, wishing to harass their relatives, informants, and others embroiled in specific enterprises.
26 Or, if the woman the man wants is already intimate with another man, he has her seized, makes her into a servant girl, and gradually introduces her into the harem. 27Or he has her husband slandered by a spy, saying, 'He is an enemy of the king', and then seizes the woman as the man's wife, and by this means has her enter the harem. Those are the secret methods.* They are generally used by the king's sons.
Compare 912
28 But the man in power should not enter another man's home in this way. 29'For when Abhira, the Kotta king, went to another man's home, a washerman employed by the king's brother killed him. And the superintendent of horses killed Jayasena the king of Varanasi.' So it is said.
30 Open sexual affairs may be pursued according to the custom of the region. 31It is said of the people of Andhra that the virgins of the countryside, on the tenth day after they have been given in marriage, take some gift suited for the purpose and enter the harem. As soon as the king has enjoyed them, they are dismissed.
32It is said of the people of Vatsagulma, that the women in the harems of men in power under state ministers go to the king at night to serve him. 33In Vidarbha, the women of the harem invite the beautiful women of the countryside to stay with them for a month or half a month, under the pretext of friendship. 34In the far West, a man will give his own wives, if they are good-looking, to kings and ministers of state as a kind of love-gift.
Hub 913
35And in Surashtra, the women of the city and the women of the countryside, in groups or one by one, enter the royal court in order to serve the king in his erotic games. 36 And there are two verses about this: These and many other devices for seducing other men's wives were put into circulation by kings, and are employed in region after region.* 37 But a king who takes pleasure in the welfare of his people* should absolutely not use these devices.
Cycle 239
A man who suppresses the band of six enemies within him conquers the earth too.
Flow 240
Ladder 241
Compare 242
Hub 243
Cycle 244
SIX The Life of the Women of the Harem [48]
1 The women of the harem cannot meet men, because they are carefully guarded; and since they have only one husband shared by many women in common, they are not satisfied. Therefore they give pleasure to one another with the following techniques.
Flow 245
[48] The Life of the Women of the Harem
1 The women of the harem cannot meet men, because they are carefully guarded; and since they have only one husband shared by many women in common, they are not satisfied. Therefore they give pleasure to one another with the following techniques. 2They dress up a foster-sister or girlfriend or servant girl like a man and relieve their desire with dildos or with bulbs, roots, or fruits that have that form.
Cycle 914
3They lie on statues of men that have distinct* sexual characteristics. 4Kings, too, if they are sympathetic to their women even when their passion does not stir, make use of dildos until they achieve their goal, so that in one night they can even go to many women. But when the woman he loves has her turn to sleep with him or is in her fertile season, then the man acts out of desire.
Those are the Oriental customs. (5With the very same technique that women use, men, too, if they cannot get any sexual action, are said to relieve their desire in things other than the vagina, in creatures other than the human species, in statues of women, and by simple masturbation.*) 6 The women of the harem generally get their women servants to bring in men-about-town dressed as women. 7Their foster-sisters, too, if they are intimate with the women on the inside, may make an effort to accost these men, showing them what a future there is in it.
Flow 915
8They describe how easy it is to enter, the place where they can get out, the spaciousness of the building, the carelessness of the guards, and the irregularities of the entourage. 9They should not, however, use false representations to get people to enter, for this would be a serious mistake. 10 Vatsyayana says: A man-about-town, however, should not enter a harem even if it is easy to get into, because this usually ends in disaster.
Ladder 916
11But if he has considered, with an eye to the rewards, all the factors-if the harem has an exit and is deeply hidden by thick woods, the wall enclosing the harem is long and divided up, the guards are few and careless, and the king is away-and if he has been invited many times, and he has worked out a way over the wall, and the women have shown him the way to do it, he may enter. 12And within the field of possibility, he should come out every day.
13 He gets close to the guards on the outside through some pretext. 14He represents himself as attached to a servant girl who works inside and who knows his real purposes. And he reveals to the women who go inside the harem his sorrow at not being with that girl, and he gets them to do the whole job of a messenger.
Compare 917
15He finds out who the king's spies are. 16If, however, the female messenger cannot find a way for him to get in, but the woman he wants has sent him signals, he stations himself where she can see him. 17Even at that very spot, however, he makes some pretext to the guards about his servant girl.
Hub 918
18When the woman's gaze is fixed on him, he sends messages to her with his gestures and signals. 19Where her gaze falls, there he places a portrait of her, and fragments of songs with double meanings, and little toys with special marks on them, and a ring marked with an impression. 20He perceives her answer to his question.
Ladder 246
And then he strives to enter. 21 He finds out where she goes all the time and he hides himself right there, ahead of time. 22Or he disguises himself as a guard and enters at a time that she appoints.
23Or he goes in and out clothed in a bedspread or a cloak. 24Or he makes his shadow and his body disappear by means of the magic trick of the 'pocket-no pocket'.* 25The technique for this is: He cooks the heart of a mongoose, the fruits of a fenugreek plant and a long gourd, and snake eyes, over a fire that does not smoke. Then he rubs into this the same measure of the collyrium used as eye make-up.
When he has smeared his eyes with this, he can move about without a shadow or a body. 26And on the nights of the full moon, he can move about by the light of many lamps, or by a subterranean passage. 27 And there is this verse about this: Also when things are carried out, and when things to drink are brought in for festivals and drinking parties, and there is a lot of confused activity among the maidservants; and when there is a move from one house to another,
Cycle 919
Compare 247
and an outing to a park or a festival,
and when they return from the festival; and when the king has gone away on a journey that will last for a long time- that is usually when young men enter and also when they leave. 28 The women of the harem, knowing one another's purposes and sharing a single purpose, may make the rest of the women, too, defect to their side. Therefore, by getting them to corrupt one another and to remain resolute in accomplishing their single purpose, he immediately becomes safe from being betrayed and enjoys the fruits that he desires.
29 Among the people of the far West, women who have business in the royal court are the ones who bring likely looking men into the harem, because they are not very well guarded. 30The Abhira women get what they want from the guards of the harem themselves, the ones who call themselves Warriors. 31The Vatsagulma women bring in, together with errand girls, the sons of men-about-town dressed in the girls' clothing.
Flow 920
32The Vidarbha women use their own sons, who move freely in and out of the harem, each excepting the son she gave birth to. 33The women who rule their own country use their own kinsmen and relatives, who enter the harem in the same way, but no other men. 34The women of Gauda use Brahmins, friends, servants, attendants, and houseboys.
35The women of Sindh use doormen, artisans, and any other men of that sort who are not prevented from entering the harem. 36The men of the Himalayas boldly bribe the guard with money and enter en masse. 37In Vanga, Anga, and Kalinga, the Brahmins of the city, under the pretext of bringing flowers, go to the harem with the king's full knowledge.
They chat with the women from behind a curtain. Once they have met like that, they get together. 38In the East, nine or ten women en masse conceal one young man at a time.
That is how a man can seduce other men's women. That is the life of the women of the harem.*
Hub 248
[49] The Guarding of Wives
39 For these very reasons a man should guard his own wives. 40Scholars say: 'Guards stationed in the harem should be proved pure by the trial of desire.' 41Gonikaputra says: 'But fear or power may make them let the women use another man; therefore guards should be proved pure by the trials of desire, fear, and power.'* 42Vatsyayana says: Religion prevents treachery. But a man will abandon even religion because of fear.
Therefore guards should be proved pure by the trial of religion and fear. 43 The followers of Babhravya say: 'To find out about his own wives' purity or impurity, a man should test them through charming women who have deeply hidden their own involuntary signals and who will report what other people say.' 44But Vatsyayana says: Because corrupt people can succeed among young women, a man should not set in motion, without a reason, the corruption of a person who is not corrupt.
Ladder 921
45 The things that ruin women are as follows: too much socializing, not enough restraint,* independence from her husband, unrestrained access to men, separation from her husband during his absence, living abroad, the loss of her means of subsistence, close contact with loose women, and her husband's jealousy. 46 A man who knows texts and considers, from the text, the devices whose telltale signs are detailed in the discussion of the seduction of other men's wives, is never deceived by his own wives.
47 But he himself should never seduce other men's wives, because these techniques show only one of the two sides of each case, because the dangers are clearly visible, and because it goes against both religion and power. 48 This book was undertaken in order to guard wives, for the benefit of men; its arrangements should not be learned in order to corrupt the people.
Cycle 249
Flow 250
Ladder 251
Compare 252
ONE Deciding on a Friend, an Eligible Lover, and an Ineligible Lover [50]
1 Courtesans find sexual pleasure and a natural way of making a living in their sexual relations with men. 2Doing it for sexual pleasure is natural, and for gain is artificial, 3but she makes the artificial, too, appear natural, 4because men trust women who are driven by desire.
Hub 253
[50] Deciding on a Friend, an Eligible Lover, and an Ineligible Lover
1 Courtesans find sexual pleasure and a natural way of making a living in their sexual relations with men. 2Doing it for sexual pleasure is natural, and for gain is artificial, 3but she makes the artificial, too, appear natural, 4because men trust women who are driven by desire. 5In order to demonstrate that it is natural, she betrays no greed.
Compare 922
6And in order to make the future secure, she does not get money from him by objectionable methods. 7 She is always well dressed as she looks out on the main street, easily seen but not too much exposed, because she is just like something for sale. 8She makes friends with people through whom she can attract the man, cut him off from other women, ward off losses and rebound from them, get money, and avoid being treated with contempt by her lovers.
9These friends are policemen, officers of the courts, fortune-tellers, bold men, heroes, men who know the same things as she knows, men who have a grasp of the arts,* libertines, panders, clowns, garland-makers, perfumers, wine-merchants, washermen, barbers, beggars, and whichever other men can be used to accomplish her goals. 10 Lovers who are eligible just for the sake of money are these: an independent man, a man who has just come of age, a rich man, a man whose source of income is transparent, an official, a man who obtains wealth without difficulty, a jealous rival, a man with a steady income, a man who believes he is lucky in love, a braggart, an impotent man, a man who wants to be known as a real man, a man who competes with his equals, a man generous by nature, a man who has influence with a king or a minister of state, a fatalist,* a man who despises wealth, a man who transgresses the instructions of his elders, a man who sets an example for his siblings, a rich only son, a man who wears the sign of a religious order, a man who conceals his sexual desire, a hero, and a doctor.
Hub 923
11 But men who are rich only in love and fame are eligible lovers because of their good qualities. 12The man's good qualities are these: he is born of a great family, learned, knowledgeable about all customs, a poet, a skilled storyteller, eloquent, resolute, skilled in the various crafts, concerned for his elders. He has ambition, great endurance, and loyalty, is generous but not envious, and loving to his friends.
Cycle 924
He is fond of crowds, salons, theatrical performances, parties, and all kinds of games. He is free of disease, sound of limb, full of the breath of life, like a bull, friendly. He does not drink wine.
He attracts women and flirts with them but is not in their power. He has an independent income, is not coarse, prone to anger, or nervous. 13 The woman's qualities, on the other hand, are these: the woman is beautiful, young, with auspicious marks, sweet, in love with good qualities but not with money, by nature inclined to love and sex, with a steady mind, true to one type,* a seeker of special things, never living in a greedy way, and fond of salons and the arts.
14The following are the common qualities that the woman has, in addition: intelligence, good character, good behaviour, honesty, gratitude, the ability to see far and long, no habit of interrupting or contradicting, a knowledge of the right time and place, and urbanity.* And she is free from depression, excessive laughter, malignant gossip, verbal abuse, anger, greed, dullness, and fickleness. She speaks only when spoken to and is skilled in the Kamasutra and its ancillary sciences. 15 The inverses of these qualities are the faults.
Cycle 254
19Gain, however, should not be thwarted by love, since gain is the chief concern. 20But the relative weight of fear and so forth* should be tested. That is how to decide on a friend, an eligible lover, an ineligible lover, and the reasons for taking a lover.
Flow 255
[51] Getting a Lover
21 Even when a lover propositions her, she does not accept him immediately, for men scorn what is easy to get. 22In order to find out the lover's true feelings she sends him servants with masseurs, singers, and clowns, or people devoted to him. 23If they are not available, she sends the libertine and so forth.
From them she finds out if the man is pure or impure, passionate or not passionate, attached to her or not attached, generous or not generous. 24And when she has found out about him, she offers him her love through the mediation of the pander. 25 Under the pretext of a quail-fight, cock-fight, or ram-fight, or of hearing a parrot or a mynah talk, or of a theatrical spectacle or some art, the libertine brings the man to her home, 26or her to his.
That is how to get a lover. 31 And there are verses about this: When a man comes to her she gives him, with love, betel and garlands and carefully prepared fragrant oils, and she engages him in conversation about the arts. 32 She gives him things out of affection and exchanges things with him; and of her own accord she lets him know that she wants to make love.
33 Through love-gifts, hints, and courtesies with just one meaning, she becomes intimate with her lover, and after that she gets him to love her.
Ladder 256
Compare 257
Hub 258
Cycle 259
Flow 260
TWO Giving the Beloved what He Wants [52]
1 Once united with the man, she behaves like an only wife in order to make him love her. 2A brief saying sums it up: She makes him love her but does not become attached to him, though she acts as if she were attached.
Ladder 261
[52] Giving the Beloved what He Wants
1 Once united with the man, she behaves like an only wife in order to make him love her. 2A brief saying sums it up: She makes him love her but does not become attached to him, though she acts as if she were attached. 3 And she represents herself as dependent upon a mother who is cruel by nature and cares about nothing but money, 4or, if she does not have a mother, upon a woman who is like a mother.
5This other woman, however, is not too fond of the lover, 6and tries to take her daughter away by force. 7At this prospect, however, the woman continually exhibits displeasure, loathing, shame, and fear, 8though she does not disobey the other woman's command. 9She announces that she has a unique disease that has no apparent cause, is not disgusting, cannot be perceived with the eye, and is intermittent.
10She makes this excuse when she has a reason not to go to the lover. 11But she sends a servant girl for his leftover garlands* and betel. 12 When making love, she expresses wonder at what he does for her.
13She learns the sixty-four arts of love,* 14and when he has taught her these methods, she practises them on him in return, with constant repetition. 15When they are alone together she does what suits his individual personality. 16She tells him her desires.
17She conceals any imperfections of her hidden places. 18In bed, she does not ignore him when he turns toward her. 19She responds when he touches her hidden places.
20She kisses and embraces him when he is asleep. 21She watches him when his mind is elsewhere, and when she is standing on the rooftop porch of her house and he recognizes her there from the main street, she becomes shy and no longer cunning. 22 She hates anyone he hates, and likes anyone he likes.
She takes her pleasure in what gives him pleasure, and rejoices and sorrows as he does. She wants to know about his women. And her anger does not last long.
23She worries that some other woman has left the marks of nails and teeth on him, even when she herself has made them. 24She does not speak of her passion for him, 25but shows it by her signals. 26And when she is drunk, asleep, or ill, she talks about it* 27and about the man's good deeds.
Compare 262
28When he is talking, she grasps the point of what he is saying, and when she has considered it, and there is an opportunity to praise him, she speaks; she makes a reply to what he has said, if he is devoted to her. 29She is attentive to all his stories, except when they are about another wife. 30When he sighs, yawns, stumbles, or falls, she wishes him health; 31when he sneezes, cries out, or is startled, she exclaims, 'Live!'* 32If she becomes depressed, she pretends to be ill or to have the morbid longings that pregnant women have.
33She does not praise another man for his good qualities, 34nor blame another man for the flaws that he has in common with her man. 35 She keeps anything he has given her. 36When there has been a false* accusation of infidelity or some misfortune has occurred, she wears no jewellery and refuses to eat.
37And she grieves in unity with him. 38She chooses to leave the region with him and to be ransomed from the king. 39She can live a long life only because she has him.
40When he gets money, or achieves something he wants, or improves his physical strength, she makes an offering to her personal deity, as she had promised in advance. 41She always takes care to dress well and wear jewellery, and takes little food. 42She mentions his name and his lineage in her songs; when she is weary, she lays his hand on her breast and forehead, and she falls asleep in the pleasure that she experiences in that.
43She sits on his lap and goes to sleep there, and when he gets up and moves away from her, she goes after him. 44She wants to have a child by him, and does not want to live longer than he. 45 When they are alone together, she does not speak of things that he does not know.
46She restrains him from making a vow or fasting, by saying, 'It is my fault.' But if this is not possible, then she too takes on that role. 47If there is a quarrel, she says, 'Even he cannot decide the matter.'* 48She herself looks upon what is his and what is hers as indistinguishable. 49She does not go to parties and so forth without him.
50 She is proud of wearing leftover garlands and eating leftover food. 51She admires his lineage, character, artistic skill, caste, knowledge, class, wealth, homeland, friends, good qualities, age, and sweetness. 52She urges him to sing, and so forth, if he knows how.
Hub 263
"She goes to him with no regard for danger, cold, heat, or rain. 54On the occasion of making funeral offerings for reincarnation in other bodies she says, 'And let him alone be mine!'* 55She does what he wants with regard to his wishes, tastes, feelings, and character. 56She is suspicious of love-sorcery worked with roots.
57She always argues with her mother about going to him, 58and if her mother forces her to go elsewhere, then she longs for poison, fasting to death, a sword, or a rope. 59And she convinces the man of this, through her secret agents, or she herself makes him grasp her situation. 60But she does not argue about money, 61and she does nothing without her mother.
62 When he goes on a journey, she makes him swear to return quickly. 63And when he is away, she makes a vow to abstain from washing and she refuses to wear jewellery, except for jewellery with religious meaning and power. Or she wears one conch-shell bangle.
64She remembers things that happened in the past, goes to fortunetellers and oracles who channel supernatural voices, and envies the constellations, the moon, the sun, and the stars. 65When she has a dream-vision of what she longs for, she says, 'May I be united with him!' 66If she is disturbed by a dream of what she does not long for, she performs the ritual to set it at peace. 67 When he is coming home, she performs a ritual to honour the god Kama, 68makes offerings to the deities, 69brings out a full pot* with her girlfriends, 70and performs a ritual to honour the crows.* 71And right after he comes to her for the first time, she does this very same thing, without the ritual to honour the crows.
72 To a man who is attached to her she says that she will follow him even beyond death.* 73The signs of his being attached to her are that he trusts her with his true feelings, lives in the same way as she does, carries out her plans, is without suspicion, and has no concern for money matters. 74 All of this has been said to give an example taken from the teachings of Dattaka. What remains unsaid is what a person learns from the experience of the world and from the nature of men.
75And there are two verses about this: Because of the subtlety and excessive greed of women and the impossibility of knowing their nature, the signs of their desire are hard to know, even for those who are its object. 76 Women desire and they become indifferent, they arouse love and they abandon; even when they are extracting all the money, they are not really known.
Cycle 264
Flow 265
Ladder 266
Compare 267
Hub 268
THREE Ways to Get Money from Him [53]
1 She has both natural and contrived ways of getting money from a man who is attached to her. 2Scholars have said about this: 'She should not use contrived means for this, if she can obtain it naturally or get even more through inventiveness.' 3Vatsyayana says: He will give double the agreed amount when it is embellished through a contrived means.
Cycle 269
[53] Ways to Get Money from Him
1 She has both natural and contrived ways of getting money from a man who is attached to her. 2Scholars have said about this: 'She should not use contrived means for this, if she can obtain it naturally or get even more through inventiveness.' 3Vatsyayana says: He will give double the agreed amount when it is embellished through a contrived means. 4 She contrives the following pretexts to get money from him: She gets money in order to take from merchants, on credit against future payment, such things as jewellery, cooked food, raw ingredients, drinks, garlands, garments, and perfumes.* 5She praises his wealth to his face.
6She pretends to need money for such things as vows, trees, parks, temples, pools, gardens, festivals, and love-gifts. 7She says that her jewellery was stolen by guards or thieves, as a result of her going to him, 8that her property in the house was lost through fire, someone breaking through a wall, or carelessness, 9and so was some jewellery that the owner has asked to have back, and the man's jewellery. And she lets him know, through spies, about the expenses she has incurred in order to go to him.
10She incurs debts for his sake, and she quarrels with her mother about the expenses that he has caused her. 11 She no longer goes to parties given by friends, because she has no presents for them. 12And the valuable present that these friends previously brought her, which she had mentioned previously, now must be reciprocated.
13She abruptly ceases her usual activities. 14She engages artisans on the man's behalf. 15She does favours for a physician and a minister of state for the sake of a particular project.
She outfits the son of a girlfriend on a ceremonial occasion.
There are the longings that a pregnant woman has for special food. She cheers up an unhappy friend. 18She sells a part of her jewellery for the man's sake.
19She shows a merchant the jewellery that she always uses, or the household goods and cooking utensils, in order to sell them. 20When there is a pooling of similar household goods with those of rival courtesans de luxe, she takes the special ones. 21She does not forget former kindnesses, and she speaks warmly of them in public.
22Through spies, she makes sure that he hears about the abundant gains made by rival courtesans de luxe. 23Then, in the man's presence, she describes to those women her own even greater gains, whether or not this is so, with an air of embarrassment. 24She openly refuses men with whom she has had former connections, when they try to get her to come back to them again by offering her abundant gains.
Flow 270
25She remarks on the generosity of the man's rivals. 26And if she thinks, 'He will not come back', she begs like a child. Those are the ways to get money.
[54] Signs that his Passion is Cooling 27 She always knows when his passion is cooling, from the changes in his natural feelings and the look of his face. 28He gives her too little or too much. 29He is close with those who are against her.
30He pretends to do one thing and does something else. 31He abruptly stops doing what he usually does. 32He forgets his promises, or keeps them in the wrong way.
33He speaks with his own people through signs. 34He sleeps somewhere else, making the excuse that he has to do something for a friend. 35He talks secretly with the servant of a woman who was previously his mistress.
36 Before he realizes it, she finds some pretext and gets her hands on his valuables.* 37A creditor takes them from her hands by force. 38If he argues about this, he can be sued in court. Those are the signs that his passion is cooling.
Ladder 271
[55] Ways to Get Rid of Him
She curls her lip and stamps on the ground with her foot. She talks about things he does not know about. She shows no amazement, but only contempt, for the things he does know about.
She has affairs with men who are superior to him. She criticizes men who have the same faults. And she stalls when they are alone together.
42She is upset by the things he does for her when they are making love. She does not offer him her mouth. She keeps him away from between her legs.
She is disgusted by wounds made by nails or teeth. When he tries to hug her, she repels him by making a 'needle' with her arms. She wants only to sleep.
When she sees that he is exhausted, she urges him on. She laughs at him when he cannot do it, and she shows no pleasure when he can. When she notices that he is aroused, even in the daytime, she goes out to be with a crowd.
43 She intentionally distorts the meaning of what he says. She laughs when he has not made a joke, and when he has made a joke, she laughs about something else. When he is talking, she looks at her entourage with sidelong glances and slaps them.
And when she has interrupted his story, she tells other stories. She talks in public about the bad habits and vices that he cannot give up. Through a servant girl, she insults him where he is vulnerable.
Compare 272
44She does not see him when he comes to her. She asks for things that should not be asked for. And at the end, the release* happens of itself.
That is Dattaka's view of the liaison. 45 And there are two verses about this: The work of a courtesan is to test lovers and then join with them, to enchant the man she joins, to get money from the man she has enchanted, and at the end to release him. 46 A courtesan who manages a liaison according to this method is not cheated by her lovers but makes piles of money.
Hub 273
Cycle 274
Flow 275
Ladder 276
FOUR Getting Back Together with an Ex-lover [56]
1 When she is getting rid of her present lover after she has squeezed all the money out of him, she may get together with a man who was previously her lover. 2If he still has money or has made money, and still loves her, she can get together with him.
Compare 277
[56] Getting Back Together with an Ex-lover
1 When she is getting rid of her present lover after she has squeezed all the money out of him, she may get together with a man who was previously her lover. 2If he still has money or has made money, and still loves her, she can get together with him. 3If he has gone elsewhere, she must find out about him; he may belong in any of the six possible categories, according to the circumstances: 4 [a] He left her of his own accord and he left the other woman, too, of his own accord.
5 [b] He left both her and the other woman because they got rid of him. 6 [c] He left her of his own accord and he left the other woman because she got rid of him. 7 [d] He left her of his own accord and stayed with the other woman.
8 [e] He left her because she got rid of him and he left the other woman of his own accord. 9 [f] He left her because she got rid of him and he stayed with the other woman. 10 [a] If a man who left both her and the other woman of his own accord tries to talk her into taking him back, she should not take him back, because he has a fickle mind and has scorned the qualities of both women.
11 [b] A man who left both her and the other woman because they got rid of him has a constant mind. If the other woman got rid of him, even though he has money, because she could get a lot of money from another man, the courtesan may take him back, thinking, 'Since that woman insulted him, he will give me a lot of money out of spite.' 12But if she rejected him because he has no money or is stingy, he is not a good prospect.* 13 [c] If he left her of his own accord and left the other woman because she got rid of him, and if he gives her more than he did the first time, then he is fit for a liaison.
14 [d] If a man who left her of his own accord, and stayed with the other woman, tries to talk her into taking him back, she must find out about him. 15She may think, 'He went away because he was looking for something special, and now he wants to come back from her to me because he did not see that special something; and if he comes back because he wants to know me better, he will give me a lot of money, because of his love for me.
Or, because he has seen her faults and now sees that I have most of the good qualities, being a man who recognizes good qualities, he will give me the most money.' 16But if she realizes, 'He is a child, whose gaze never rests in a single place, or a man who generally breaks agreements, or someone who does anything he can do, as fickle in his passion as turmeric is in its colour',* then she either will or will not get back together with him. 17 [e] If a man who left her because she got rid of him, and left the other woman of his own accord, tries to talk her into taking him back, she must find out about him: 18'If he comes back because he loves me, he will give me a lot of money.
Since that other woman did not please him, my good qualities will win him over. 19Or since, in the past, I got rid of him for no cause, now he wants to cultivate me and vent his hatred on me. Or he wants to get my confidence and get back, in retaliation, the wealth that I took away from him when he was courting me.
Or he wants to get revenge by breaking me away from my present lover and then abandoning me.' A man that has such unpleasant ways of thinking is not one to get back together with. 20Time will reveal if he changes his way of thinking. 21 [f] A man who left her because she got rid of him, and stayed with the other woman, and tries to talk her into taking him back, has been covered by this last case.
Hub 278
22Among those who try to talk her into taking them back, the one who stayed with the other woman is the one that she herself tries to talk herself into taking back: 23'I got rid of this man for a false reason, and he went elsewhere, and now I should make an effort to bring him back.' 24Or, 'Once he hears from me, he will break away from her 25and he will stop her income.' 26Or, 'He has now come into some money; he is living in a bigger house; he has an administrative job. He has separated from his wives.
He has freed himself from those on whom he was dependent. He has split with his father or brother.' 27Or, 'If I get together with him, I will get the wealthy lover whom he is now keeping away from me.' 28Or, 'His wife has treated me with contempt; I will get him to leave her.'* 29Or, 'His friend is in love with my co-wife, who hates me; I will use him to get his friend to break away from her.' 30Or, 'I will make trouble for him by making him appear light-minded, because of his fickleness.' 31 The libertine and the others explain to him that the woman got rid of him before because her mother was so evil-minded, and she herself was powerless, even though she was in love with him; 32and that, although she sleeps with her present lover, she has no desire, and she hates him.
33They try to get him back by playing upon his memories of her and his former love for her, 34and they say, 'She vividly remembers what you did for her.' That is how to get back together with an ex-lover. 35 Scholars say: 'Between two lovers, one who had an affair with her in the past and one who did not, the one who had an affair with her in the past is better. For she knows his character and has seen his passion, and he serves her well.' 36Vatsyayana says: A man who had an affair with her in the past does not give her very much money, because all the money has already been squeezed out of him, and it is hard to get his trust again; but a man who did not have an affair with her in the past easily falls in love with her.
37Nevertheless, there are exceptions according to the nature of the man. 38 And there are verses about this: She may wish to get back together again to break another woman away from the lover, or the lover from another woman, and to hurt, again, the lover who stays with another woman. 39 When a man is too deeply attached to her, he fears that she will make love with another man and he disregards her lies.
And, because of his fear, he gives her a lot. 40 She welcomes the man who is not attached* to her and scorns the man who is attached to her. And if a messenger should come from another man who is very experienced, 41 a woman stalls for time with her former lover, when he is trying to talk her into taking him back: she makes sure that the connection is unbroken, and does not give up the man who is attached to her.
42 But a woman may talk with a man who is attached to her and in her power and then, nevertheless, go elsewhere. And when she has taken the money from him, too, she enchants just the man who is attached to her. 43 A clever woman gets back together with an ex-lover only after she has tested, at the start, the future outlook, the gain, the abundant love, and the friendship.
Cycle 279
Flow 280
Ladder 281
Compare 282
Hub 283
Cycle 284
FIVE Weighing Different Kinds of Profits [57]
1 If she has a multitude of lovers and can make a lot of money every day, she need not confine herself to a single lover. 2Taking into account the place, the time, and the conditions, and her own qualities and luck in love, and whether she is charging more or less than other women, she establishes the price of a night.
Flow 285
[57] Weighing Different Kinds of Profits
1 If she has a multitude of lovers and can make a lot of money every day, she need not confine herself to a single lover. 2Taking into account the place, the time, and the conditions, and her own qualities and luck in love, and whether she is charging more or less than other women, she establishes the price of a night. 3She also sends messengers to her lover, and she herself summons men with whom he has some connection.
4She may go two, three, or even four times to a single lover in order to take extraordinary profits, and then she establishes a liaison. 5 Scholars say: 'When she has several lovers at once, however, who offer equal opportunities for profit, the obvious choice is the one who gives her whatever she wants.'* 6Vatsyayana says: The one who gives gold is best, because gold cannot be taken back again and can buy everything that is needed. 7Of gold, silver, copper, bronze, iron, furniture, utensils, bedding, blankets, special clothing, perfumed articles, sharp spices, dishes, ghee, sesame oil, grain, and the species of cattle, each should be chosen rather than the one that follows.
8When the things are the same, or of the same quality, the choice should be made on the basis of a friend's advice, temporary needs, future needs, the lover's qualities, and love. 9 Scholars say: 'Between a lover who is in love and another who is generous, the obvious choice is the generous one.' 10Vatsyayana says: But it is possible to cultivate generosity in a man who is in love. 11For even a greedy man, if he is in love, spends generously, but a generous man cannot be made to fall in love through mere persistence.
A generous man, however, has no regard for the past.
14In this case [of a generous man versus a man who does what she needs], too, the choice is for the man who takes care of future needs. 15 Scholars say: 'Between a grateful man and a generous man, the clear choice is the generous man.' 16But even when she has pleased a generous man for a long time, when he sees one false move or believes unjust slander by a rival courtesan de luxe, he has no regard for the trouble she went to in the past.
17For in general, generous men are dignified, straightforward, and thoughtless. 18Vatsyayana says: A grateful man has regard for the trouble she has taken in the past and his passion does not suddenly cool toward her. And since his character has been tested and proven, he is not susceptible to unjust slander.* 19In this case [of a generous man versus a grateful man], too, the choice is for the man who takes care of future needs.
24 Scholars say: 'Between getting money and warding off losses, the clear choice is getting money' 25Vatsyayana says: Money gained has a limit; loss, however, once it breaks out, continues to move in directions that no one can predict. 26In this case [of getting money versus warding off losses], too, the choice must be made with regard to the relative weight of each factor. 27This means that the choice is for a loss warded off rather than a doubtful gain.
Ladder 286
28 The top courtesans de luxe spend their excess profits by building temples, pools, and gardens; setting up raised mounds and fire altars; giving thousands of cows to Brahmins through the mediation of people worthy to receive them; bringing and offering articles of worship to the gods, or providing money sufficient to spend on that worship. 29Those who live on their beauty spend their excess profits by getting jewellery for all their limbs, decorating their houses elegantly, and glorifying the furnishings of their houses with expensive household goods and servants.
30Servant women who carry pots of water spend their excess profits by having spotless clothes to wear all the time, buying food and drink to stave off hunger, using perfumed things and betel all the time, and wearing jewellery that is partly made of gold. 31Scholars say: 'This example of the top courtesans de luxe also applies to the excess profit of all of them, even the middle and lowest ones.' 32Vatsyayana says: This is not a real livelihood, because the profit is not constant, depending as it does on place, time, ability, power, love, and people's customs.
37 And there are verses about this: For both future and present purposes, she should avoid, at a great distance, men who have amassed their wealth with difficulty and men who are the cruel favourites of the king. 38 She should make every effort to captivate men whom it is disastrous to avoid and prosperous to seek, and she should use every pretext to get close to them. 39 And she should seek out, even by spending her own money, those who think on a large scale and have great energy, those who, in a good mood, will give her money even for some small matter, and without counting it.
Compare 287
Hub 288
Cycle 289
Flow 290
Ladder 291
Compare 292
SIX Calculating Gains and Losses, Consequences, and Doubts [58]
1 Losses result even from gains that are being amassed, and so do other consequences and doubts. 2All of these come from weakness of mind; from excesses of passion, of self-importance, of duplicity, of honesty, of confidence, and of anger; and from carelessness, recklessness, and the workings of fate.
Hub 293
[58] Calculating Gains and Losses, Consequences, and Doubts
1 Losses result even from gains that are being amassed, and so do other consequences and doubts. 2All of these come from weakness of mind; from excesses of passion, of self-importance, of duplicity, of honesty, of confidence, and of anger; and from carelessness, recklessness, and the workings of fate. 3Their results are the failure to reap the fruits from expenditures that have been made; lack of a future; blockage of money that is supposed to come in; disappearance of what has been gained; development of a harsh temperament; sexual vulnerability; injury to the body; hair-loss; collapse; and mutilation of the limbs.
4Therefore, from the very start one should try to root out these causes and pay attention to the factors that increase gains. 5 The three gains are money, religious merit, and pleasure,* 6and the three losses are loss of money, loss of religious merit, and hatred. 7The production of something from something else, when these three gains are being amassed, is a consequence.
8'Is it to be or not to be?' is a pure doubt about the uncertainty of achieving an object. 9'Will this happen or that?' is a mixed doubt. 10Two goals achieved when a single goal was being pursued make a two-sided result, 11and something produced by a group is a group result.
We will be referring to these. 12The form of the three gains has been discussed. The three losses are precisely the opposite of them.* 13 A gain that has the consequence of further gain occurs when she has a lover of the highest class and openly gets money from him but also becomes acceptable, sexually accessible, and sought after by other men, and gets a future.
14A gain that has no consequence occurs when she goes from one lover to another merely for profit. 15 A gain that has the consequence of a loss occurs when a man attached to her gives her money from someone else, which cuts off her future and puts an end to her money; or when she has a lover who is low or hated by everyone, which destroys her future. 16A loss that has the consequence of a gain occurs when, by spending her own money, she takes as a lover a hero or minister of state or a powerful man who is greedy; even though this liaison is fruitless, it brings a future with it and is undertaken in order to prevent some disaster or to allay some factor that might be greatly destructive of her gains.
17 A loss that has no consequences occurs when she gratifies, even by spending her own money, a miser who thinks he is lucky in love, or an ungrateful man who by his very nature cheats, and in the end this is fruitless. 18A loss that has the consequence of further loss occurs when she gratifies in that very way just such a man who is a favourite of the king, rich in cruelty and power, and in the end this is fruitless, but when she gets rid of him that also does her harm.
19 The consequences for religious merit and pleasure can be calculated in the same way, 20and each can be combined with one of the others in the appropriate way. 21 The doubt about money is, 'Will he give it or not, even if he is fully satisfied?' 22The doubt about religious merit is, 'Will I serve religion or not, by throwing out a man from whom no more money can be taken, once all the money has been squeezed out of him and he is no longer fruitful?' 23The doubt about pleasure is, 'Will there be pleasure or not, if I go to a servant or some other low man whom I find attractive?' 24 The doubt about loss is, 'If I do not go to a powerful but low man, will that cause me a loss or not?' 25The doubt about the violation of religion is, 'If I abandon a man who is attached to me but is absolutely fruitless, and he goes to the world of his ancestors, does that violate religion or not?' 26The doubt about hatred is, 'Will my passion cool or not toward a man whom I do not find attractive and who hesitates even to speak of passion?' Those are the pure doubts.
27 Now for the mixed doubts. 28The doubt is: 'Will gain or loss result from gratifying a newcomer whose character is unknown or a newly arrived man who is powerful because he has the protection of a favourite?' 29The doubt is: 'Will I serve religion or violate it if I go, on the sympathetic advice of a friend, to a Brahmin who knows the Veda, or to a man who is under a vow of chastity or consecrated for a sacrifice, or a man who has taken a vow or who wears the sign of a religious order, if he has seen me and conceived a passion for me and wants to die?' 30The doubt is: 'Will pleasure or hatred result if I go to a man without knowing if he has or does not have good qualities, because people have not yet tested him?' 31Each can be combined with one of the others.
Cycle 294
This ends the discussion of the mixed doubts. 32 These are the two-sided results, according to Auddalaki: 'A two-sided gain occurs when she goes to another man and gain comes, also, from the man who is attached to her, out of rivalry. 33A two-sided loss occurs when she spends her own money on a fruitless liaison with another man, and the man who is attached to her, unable to put up with that, takes back the money he had given her.
34A two-sided doubt about gain occurs when she has gone to another man and worries, "Will there be gain in this or not?" and "Will the man who is attached to me also give something, out of rivalry, or not?" 35A two-sided doubt about loss occurs when she has gone to a man at her own expense: "Will my former lover, in his frustration and anger, do me harm or not?" and, "Will the man who is attached to me, unable to put up with it, take back the money he had given me or not?"' 36 But the followers of Babhravya say: 37'A two-sided gain occurs when gain comes both from the man she goes to and from the man who is attached to her to whom she does not go. 38A two-sided loss occurs when she spends her money fruitlessly on going to another man and cannot recoup her loss of money from the man she does not go to.
39A two-sided doubt about gain occurs when she has gone to another man, and she wonders: "Will he give me money without my incurring expenses or not?" and "Will the man who is attached to me and to whom I have not gone give me money or not?" 40A two-sided doubt about loss occurs when she has gone to another man at her own expense, and she wonders: "Will my former lover, frustrated, demonstrate his powers or not?" and, "Will the one I do not go to become angry and cause me a loss or not?"' 41 Six mixed results are produced by combining these: gain on one side and loss on the other; gain on one side and doubt about gain on the other; gain on one side and doubt about loss on the other. 42Considering among these, together with her helpers, she acts in such a way as to maximize gain, even when there is doubt about gain, or to cut her losses significantly.
43She treats religious merit and pleasure in this same way: they can be combined, one with another, and paired with their opposites. Those are the two-sided results. 44 When a group of voluptuaries keep one woman for all of them, that is a group liaison.
45When she gets together with first one of them and then another, she gets money from them one by one, through their rivalry. 46At occasions such as the spring festival, she announces, through her mother: 'My daughter "will go tonight to the man who does this or that for me."' 47And from going to them in a way that causes rivalry, she targets what she needs: 48gain from one and gain from all of them, loss from one and loss from all, gain from half and gain from all, loss from half and loss from all.
Those are the group results. 49 Doubt about gain and doubt about loss can be calculated as above. And religious merit and pleasure can be combined with them in the same way.
Those are the gains and losses, consequences, and doubts.
Flow 295
Ladder 296
Types of Courtesans
50 The servant woman who carries water, the servant girl, the promiscuous woman, the loose woman, the dancer, the artist, the openly ruined woman, the woman who lives on her beauty, and the courtesan de luxe: those are the types of courtesans. 51And all of them must choose appropriate lovers and helpers and consider the ways to please them, ways to get money from them, to get rid of them and to get back together with them, the consequences of various profits, the consequences from and doubts about gain and loss.
That is all about courtesans. 52 And there are two verses about this: Since men want sexual pleasure and women, too, want sexual pleasure, therefore union with women is the main subject of this text. 53 There are women who care most of all for passion, and there are also women who care most of all for money; passion was described earlier, and the practices of courtesans in this book about courtesans.
Compare 297
Hub 298
Cycle 299
Flow 300
ONE Making Luck in Love [59]
1 The Kamasutra has now been told in full. 2But a person who has not obtained the object of desire through the methods it describes may have recourse to these secret recipes.
Ladder 301
[59] Making Luck in Love
1 The Kamasutra has now been told in full. 2But a person who has not obtained the object of desire through the methods it describes may have recourse to these secret recipes. 3Beauty, good qualities, the right age, and generosity-these make you lucky in love.
4But an ointment made of the leaves of the East Indian rose bay, wild ginger, and the Indian plum can also make you lucky in love. 5So can an ointment made of these substances, finely ground up and mixed with myrobalan oil, all prepared in a human skull. 6And so can eye make-up made with oil prepared from hogweed, the mauve savannah-flower, the yellow silk-cotton flower, red amaranth, and blue lotus leaves, 7or garlands coated with the same materials.
8You become lucky in love if you lick a powder made of the dried filaments of white lotuses, blue lotuses, and rose chestnuts, mixed with honey and clarified butter, 9or if you coat yourself with an ointment made of these substances together with the leaves of the East Indian rose bay, Indian plum, and cinnamon bay-tree. 10Holding a gold-plated peacock's eye or hyena's eye in your right hand makes you lucky in love. 11You may also use, in the very same way, an amulet made from a jujube-berry and one made from a conch-shell, employing the methods of the Atharva Veda.
12 When a master sees that a servant girl has reached the ripeness of her youth with a knowledge of magic and a skill in applying it, he keeps her away from any other man for just one year. When her lovers have become ardent out of sheer perversity, since she has been kept from them, he gives the girl to the one who, out of rivalry with the others, gives a lot of money. That is a way to increase luck in love.
13When a courtesan de luxe sees that her own daughter has reached the ripeness of her youth, she protects her by inviting lovers whose intelligence, character, and beauty are similar to the girl's, and she makes this agreement: 'Whoever gives such and such can take her hand in marriage.' 14And, seemingly without her mother's knowledge, the daughter inspires love, to excess, in the rich sons of the men-about-town. 15She manages to see them here or there in the course of enjoying the arts, or in music-halls, or at the home of a beggar woman.
16And when they give the money that has been stipulated, the mother offers the daughter's hand in marriage. 17But if the mother does not get that amount of money, she may even supplement it with a part of her own money and say to her daughter, 'He gave this.' 18Or she may get him to marry the girl and then take her virginity. 19Or, if she has secretly united the girl with these men, while she herself pretends to know nothing about it, she then reports it to judges whom she knows.
Those are the Oriental practices.* 21The marriage is without infidelity for the duration of a year. From then on, she is free to indulge her desires.
22Even after that year, if the man who married her invites her, she must go to him for that night even if she loses money by doing so. Those are the ways in which a courtesan marries and increases her luck in love. 23All of this also applies to the daughters of women who make their living on the stage.
Compare 302
24But those women can give their daughter to a man who does them special favours on a musical instrument. That is how to make luck in love.
Hub 303
[60] Putting Someone in your Power
25 If you coat your penis with an ointment made with powdered white thorn-apple, black pepper, and long pepper, mixed with honey, you put your sexual partner in your power. 26If you make a powder by pulverizing leaves scattered by the wind, garlands left over from corpses, and peacocks' bones, it puts someone in your power.* 27If you pulverize a female 'circle-maker' buzzard that died a natural death, and mix the powder with honey and gooseberry, it puts someone in your power.* 28If you cut the knotty roots of the milkwort and milk-hedge plants into pieces, coat them with a powder of red arsenic and sulphur, dry and pulverize the mixture seven times, mix it with honey, and spread it on your penis, you put your sexual partner in your power.
29If you burn the same powder at night, you can make the moon, viewed through the smoke, appear golden. 30If you mix the same powder with monkey shit and scatter the mixture over a virgin, she will not be given to another man. 31 They say that if you hollow out the trunk of a rosewood tree and keep in it, for six months, a mixture of orris roots and mango-oil, and then take it out and keep it for another six months, the ointment, which the gods are fond of, puts someone in your power.
32They say that if you take thin sticks from the heart of a cashew tree and place them for six months in a tree hollowed out in the same way, they develop the perfume of acacia flowers. The ointment made from them, which the demigods* are fond of, puts someone in your power. 33They say that if you mix panic-seed* and East Indian rose bay, coat them with mango-oil, and keep them in a hollowed-out rose chestnut tree for six months, the ointment, which the semi-serpents are fond of, puts someone in your power.
34They say that if you coat a camel's bone with the juice of a marigold* and burn it, and keep the resulting ointment in a hollow shank-bone and mix it with antimony, using a stick made of camel-bone, the resulting pure collyrium works on the eyes and puts someone in your power. 35You can also make salves for the eyes in this way using the bones of hawks, vultures, and peacocks.
Cycle 304
[61] Stimulants for Virility
36 If you drink milk infused with kidney beans, pepper, and sugarcane, and mixed with sugar, you become as virile as a bull. 37If you drink milk prepared with the testicles of a ram or billy goat, and mixed with sugar, it gives you the virility of a bull. 38So does drinking milk prepared with cock's-head root, dates, and horse-eye bean, 39or milk prepared with almond seeds, sugar-cane root, and cock's-head root.
40Scholars say: 'If you make a cake by grinding up some water chestnuts, kysoor root, and licorice, together with dates and jujubes, adding clarified butter and milk sweetened with sugar, and cooking it over a slow fire, and you eat it until you are satisfied, you can make love with endless women.' 41Scholars say: 'If you wash a bean and a lotus with milk, soften them with warm clarified butter, take them out, make them into a rice-pudding with milk from a cow who has a grown calf, and eat it with honey and butter, you can make love with endless women.' 42Scholars say: 'If you make a cake out of cock's-head root, horse-eye bean, sugar, honey, butter, and wheat, and eat it until you are satisfied, you can make love with endless women.' 43If you make a rice-pudding with rice that has been prepared with the juice from a sparrow's egg, pour honey and butter on it, and eat it until you are satisfied, you can-and so forth as above.* 44If you skin sesame seeds and prepare them with the juice from a sparrow's egg, add the fruits of water chestnuts, kysoor root, and horse-eye beans, together with wheat-meal and bean-meal, and milk with sugar, butter, and cooked barley, then bake a cake and devour it until you are satisfied, you can-and so forth, as above. 45Scholars say: 'Butter, honey, sugar, licorice, in quantities of eight parts of each to one part of wine-palm hemp and one hundred and twenty-eight parts milk: this six-part nectar of immortality is ritually pure, bestows virility and long life, and keeps the juices flowing.'* 46Scholars say: 'A dish made of asparagus, "dog's-fang" prickly-fruit, and molasses, with a decoction of long-pepper and honey, cooked in cow's milk with goat's butter, and eaten every day at the beginning of the spring,* is a food that is ritually pure, bestows virility and long life, and keeps the juices flowing.' 47Scholars say: 'A dish made of asparagus, "dog's-fang" prickly-fruit, and the crushed fruits of the flax plant, cooked with four times as much water until it reaches the right consistency, and then eaten early every day at the beginning of spring, is a food that is ritually pure, bestows virility and long life, and keeps the juices flowing.' 48Scholars say: 'Rise early every day and eat four ounces* of a dish made of barley-meal cooked with an exactly equal quantity of powdered "dog's-fang" prickly-fruit, a dish that is ritually pure, bestows virility and long life, and keeps the juices flowing.' 49 You can learn the techniques that compel love
Flow 305
from the Veda of Long-Life and from the Veda,*
from people who know the magic recipes and spells, and from other qualified people. 50 You should not use techniques that are doubtful, dangerous for the body, obtained by killing living creatures, or made of impure substances. 51 A man who has amassed inner powers obeys rules that educated people follow and that Brahmins and well-wishing friends recommend.
Ladder 306
Compare 307
Hub 308
TWO Rekindling Exhausted Passion [62]
1 If you are unable to pleasure a woman of fierce sexual energy, have recourse to devices. 2As you begin to make love, caress her with your hand between her legs and enter her only when she has become wet.
Cycle 309
[62] Rekindling Exhausted Passion
1 If you are unable to pleasure a woman of fierce sexual energy, have recourse to devices. 2As you begin to make love, caress her with your hand between her legs and enter her only when she has become wet. That is a way of kindling passion.* 3Oral sex kindles the passion of a man who is of dull sexual energy, past his prime, too fat, or exhausted from love-making.
4Or use sex tools,* 5made of gold, silver, copper, iron, ivory, or buffalo horn, 6or ones made of tin or lead, which are soft, cool the semen, and produce a violent* effect during the sexual act. Those are the techniques of the followers of Babhravya. 7Vatsyayana says: The ones made of wood more closely resemble the original.
8 The inside should be the size of the penis, and it should be thick, with raised bumps on the outside to make it rough. 9Two of these make a 'wraparound',* 10and three or more, up to the full length of the penis, make a 'little topknot'. 11When you twine around one single string of beads as much as the size allows, it is a 'single topknot'.
12A device fastened around the hips, with a mouth and hole at both ends and huge, rough cups over the testicles, used with force appropriate to the size, is a 'coat of mail' or a 'little net'. 13In the absence of these, attach to your hips, with a string, a cucumber, lotus stalk, or bamboo section, well greased with sesa-mum oil and decoctions; or use a smooth garland of wood, knotted and strung with many gooseberry kernels. Those are the unpierced techniques.
14 But they say that a man whose penis has not been pierced does not experience real sex. 15And so the people of the South pierce a boy's penis just like his ears. 16A young man has it cut with a knife and then stands in water as long as the blood flows.
17To keep the opening clear, he has sexual intercourse that very night, continuously.* 18Then, after an interval of one day, he cleans the opening with astringent decoctions. 19He enlarges it by putting larger and larger spears of reeds and ivory-tree wood in it, 20and he cleans it with a piece of sugar-cane coated with honey. 21After that, he enlarges it by inserting a tube of lead with a protruding knot on the end, 22and he lubricates it with the oil of the marking-nut.
Those are the techniques of piercing. 23He inserts into the enlarged opening sex tools made in various shapes: 24the 'round', the 'round on one side', the 'little mortar', the 'little blossom', the 'thorny', the 'heron's bone', the 'little elephant's tusk', the 'eight circles', the 'spinning top', the 'water chestnut', or others according to the method and the act. They must be able to bear a lot of use, and may be soft or rough* according to individual preferences.
That is how to rekindle exhausted passion, the sixty-second section.
Flow 310
Ladder 311
[63] Methods of Increasing the Size of the Male Organ
25 Rub your penis with the bristles of insects* born in trees, then massage it with oil for ten nights, then rub it again and massage it again. When it swells up as the result of this treatment, lie down on a cot with your face down and let your penis hang down from a hole in the cot. 26Then you may assuage the pain with cool astringents and, by stages, finish the treatment.
27This swelling, which lasts for a lifetime, is the one that voluptuaries call 'prickled'. 28 You can make an enlargement that lasts for a month by rubbing your penis with, one at a time, the juices of ground cherry, sweet potato, water leeches, fruits of the nightshade, fresh buffalo butter, 'elephant's ear' teak tree leaves, and heliotrope. 29You can make an enlargement that lasts for six months by rubbing it with those astringents when they have been cooked in oil, 30or by cooking in oil, over a slow fire, the seeds of pomegranates, cucumbers, and gritty cucumbers, and the juice of the fruits of the nightshade, and then rubbing or bathing your penis with this mixture.
31You learn these various techniques from qualified people. Those are the methods of increasing the size of the male organ.
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[64] Unusual Techniques
32 Any woman whom you sprinkle with powdered thorns of milk-hedge, mixed with hogweed, monkey-shit, and the roots of the glory lily, cannot desire any other man. 33If a man makes love with a woman whose vagina has been rubbed with a mixture of powdered rue, kinka oil plants, marigolds, iron, and ants, together with a decoction of the juices of the fruits of rattan and Java plum, his passion for her vanishes.* 34If a man makes love with a woman who has bathed in buffalo buttermilk mixed with powdered dung-beetles, mint, and ants, his passion for her vanishes.
35An ointment, or a garland, made from the flowers of wild jasmine, hog-plum, and Java plum, makes someone unlucky in love. 36An ointment made of the white flowers of the 'cuckoo's-eye' caper bush makes an 'elephant-cow' contract tightly for one night. 37An ointment made of powdered white lotus, blue lotus, 'morningstar' tree blossoms, rose dammar blossoms, and marjoram, makes a 'doe' open wide.* 38 If you prepare gooseberries with the sap of milkwort, fly agaric mushroom, and bowstring hemp, together with fruits of the kinka oil plant, it turns the hair on the head white.
39Bathing the hair on the head in an infusion of the roots of the henna plant, the ivory tree, the 'kohl-black' flower, butterfly grass, and 'smooth leaf ebony, makes it grow. 40If you rub it with this same mixture, combined with well-cooked oil, it makes it black and gradually restores it.* 41If a lip has been reddened with lac and you rub it seven times with the sweat from the testicles of a white horse, it becomes white. 42Such things as henna can restore the colour.
43A woman falls under the power of a man when she hears the sound of him playing a flute that has been coated with a decoction of mint, wild ginger, East Indian rose bay, Indian plum tree, cedar wood, and prickly pear. "Food prepared with the fruit of a thorn-apple tree makes anyone who eats it insane, 45and well-aged molasses restores that person. 46If you coat your hand with the shit of a peacock that has eaten yellow arsenic and red arsenic, whatever object you touch becomes invisible.
47If you mix water with oil and with the ashes of charcoal and grass, it takes on the colour of milk. 48Iron pots turn to copper if you coat them with ground black myrobalan, hog-plum, heart seed, and panic-seed. 49If you fill a lamp with the oil of heart seed and panic-seed, and make its wick out of silk and the sloughed skin of a serpent, and place long strips of wood beside it, they appear to be serpents.
50You become famous and live a long life if you drink the milk of a white cow who has a white calf, 51or if you receive the blessings of respected Brahmins. 52 By combining earlier texts and following their methods, Vatsyayana composed this Kamasutra, with great effort, in a condensed form. 53 A man who knows its real meaning sees religion, power, and pleasure, his own convictions, and the ways of the world for what they are, and he is not driven by passion.
54 The unusual techniques employed to increase passion, which have been described as this particular book required, are strongly restricted right here in this verse, right after it.* 55 For the statement that 'There is a text for this' does not justify a practice. People should realize that the contents of the texts apply in general, but each actual practice is for one particular region. 56 Vatsyayana learned and thought about the meanings of the sutras of Babhravya's followers, and then he made this Kamasutra, following the rules.
57 He made this work in chastity and in the highest meditation, for the sake of worldly life; he did not compose it for the sake of passion. 58 A man who knows the real meaning of this text guards the state of his own religion, power, and pleasure as it operates in the world, and he becomes a man who has truly conquered his senses. 59 The man who is well-taught and expert in this text pays attention to religion and power; he does not indulge himself too much in passion, and so he succeeds when he plays the part of a lover.
Hub 313
Cycle 314
Flow 315
Ladder 316
Appendix: Excerpts from Devadatta Shastri’s Commentary
Shastri provides essays on some of the central topics of the Kamasutra, as well as summarizing essays at the end of several chapters. Here are some examples of each.
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Excerpts From Devadatta Shastri’S Commentary
Shastri provides essays on some of the central topics of the Kamasutra, as well as summarizing essays at the end of several chapters. Here are some examples of each. 1.1.17 On reflection, it appears that all of human life is permeated by sexuality.
That is why the Vedas and the Upanishads, too, give examples of sex between man and woman. The ten sections on sleeping together in the Rig Veda correspond to various types of sex discussed in the Kamasutra. The text does not deal with an improper subject or science.
From a spiritual viewpoint, too, the universe in all its variety is essentially sexual. The chief component of sex is attraction and of attraction, sex. Attraction toward respected elders appears in the form of faith, devotion, and other pure sentiments.
Among equals, the same attraction appears as friendship and comradeship. Toward inferiors, attraction takes the form of compassion and kindness, towards children, parental affection. The same sexuality is manifested as maternal sentiment in the mother's heart, as lust in the lover's embrace, and as compassion toward the poor and the suffering.
But all of these are forms of one basic emotion related to sex-attraction or sexuality. That is why the Brihadranayaka Upanishad says, 'Man is sexual.' Sexuality is the semen of the mind. 1.1.24 Talismans, spells, and charms are an integral part of our civilization.
They have been a part of Indian life from the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda down to our own times. That is why it was necessary for Vatsyayana to reflect on this subject. By describing these practices at the end of the text, Vatsyayana has paid respect to public sentiment, interest, and welfare.
It is clear from Vatsyayana's list that in his view art is what enchants a woman. Any activity or skill that pleases a woman, seduces her, is art. 1.4.6 The servants of the man-about-town prepared, every week in advance, a mixture of scented substances for his use in brushing his teeth.
Hub 318
The sticks used for brushing were soaked for seven days in cow's urine in which myrobalan powder was dissolved. After that, the stick was soaked in water containing cardamom, cinnamon, antimony, and honey. The stick prepared in this way was considered beneficent.
The man-about-town of those times did not brush his teeth only for reasons of health or cleanliness but also considered it auspicious. Careful attention was given to the selection of the stick according to the type of tree and the phase of the moon. The man's servants and his priest took care that the selection of the stick was proper.
After brushing his teeth, he rubbed his body with sandalwood paste or other substances, such as aloe and saffron mixed with cream. The Ayurveda tells us that anointing the body with these substances makes it supple and scented. Then the hair was scented with the smoke of fragrant resin.
The flowers used were champa, jasmine, and white ixora. At the time of making love, garlands of yellow amaranths were recommended, since they do not fall or fade in the course of embracing, kissing or hugging. After discussing the garland, Vatsyayana talks of painting with lac-coloured dyes.
There is no indication in ancient texts that men dyed their lips or feet red. Perhaps Vatsyayana is talking about colouring the nails. Afterwards, the man-about-town looked at himself in a mirror.
Glass mirrors were not in use, but mirrors were made of highly polished square sheets of gold or silver. Vatsyayana does not give a description of the bath because the right way of taking a bath was familiar to everyone. But the ordinary bath of those days seems like a special yogic exercise today.
Cycle 319
A description is provided in Bana's Kadambari: Having finished his day's business a little before noon, the man-about-town was ready for his bath. Before the bath, he exercised a little with his friends. After resting for a while, he entered the bathroom.
It had a marble seat and gold and silver vessels filled with herbal scented water. Female servants slowly rubbed scented myrobalan in his hair. Then they massaged his body with scented oil.
The man then sat in a boat-shaped vessel filled with water for a little while and then on the marble seat for his bath. After the bath he went into the prayer room for worship. 1.4.35 Brahmins were not only reciters of the Vedas but became rich merchants by trading within and outside the country.
This was also true of the Kshatriyas. They were not only kings and warriors but also high-quality merchants. The role of the jester in almost all the Sanskrit dramas was played by a Brahmin.
This proves that in ancient times Brahmins were merchants as well as libertines, panders, and clowns. 2.1.38 In his work, Nagarasarvasva, Padmashri has described the preparations for intercourse. After dressing herself up according to the wishes of her husband, a woman should both expose and hide her limbs.
Shy and smiling, she should approach her husband. If he tries to pull her near she should withdraw in feigned modesty. When he gets up and gathers her in his arms, she should behave like a startled doe and try to hide her limbs.
But after a little while she should let herself go. She should first hide whichever part of her body her husband wants to touch, scratch, or bite, and then offer it passionately to his caress. If he hugs her tightly, bites her, or scratches her, she should make loud noises expressing pain.
Flow 320
If he embraces and kisses her she should say such loving words as 'O heartless man, do not torture me so much!' According to the occasion, the woman should respond to biting and scratching by using her own teeth and nails or by becoming helpless or saying, 'Go away, I won't talk to you', and turning over on her side. When the man tries to win her over she should turn back and engage in intercourse. After the intercourse is over, the woman should lie there exhausted with an infatuated expression on her face and close her eyes.
This makes a man give his all for her. 2.1, end On reflection, one finds that the sprout of love grows first in a woman. Women are also more passionate than men.
This kind of attraction, passion, and desire between men and women has a natural cause. The cause is a lack. A woman eagerly wishes to receive from a man what is missing in her, and vice versa.
People generally believe that men get infatuated with women. But the fact is the opposite. A woman is more capable of infatuation than a man.
Man and woman are two currents of electricity. One is a debt, the other a wealth. The two currents are oppos-ites.
One attracts, the other repulses. When both meet, electricity appears. Indian science believes that a woman possesses the essence of the sun, and a man, that of the moon.
The sun draws in the juice of the earth through its power, while the moon bathes the earth in dew. The sun-possessed woman draws the moon-possessed man's semen inside herself. This is the main cause of the attraction and love between man and woman.
Ladder 321
2.2, end Padmashri is of the opinion that it is proper to sleep only with a girl and a young woman (taruni). Till the age of sixteen, a woman is called a girl, from sixteen to thirty a taruni, from thirty to fifty middle-aged, and after fifty she is called an old woman. To sleep with a girl in summer and autumn is beneficial.
In early and late winter one should sleep with a young woman, and in spring and the rainy season, with a middle-aged woman. A man's energy increases if he enjoys a girl. A young woman saps his energy and a middle-aged woman makes him old.
From the new to the full moon, the god Kama first mounts the woman's thumb, then her feet, thighs, navel, breasts, nipple, throat, cheeks, lips, eyes, eyebrows, and forehead. That is why knowledgeable men awaken the god by holding the woman's hair, kissing her eyes and forehead, biting her lips, pressing her nipples, and stroking her breast and navel. Sushruta says that just like the invisible presence of juice in the sugar-cane stalk, butter in milk, and oil in seasame seed, semen is present in all parts of a man's body.
When a man thinks of a desired woman, sees, hears, or embraces her, he feels sexual pleasure, and semen is drawn from different parts of the body to enter the urinary canal. Sushruta's statement that semen is the material form of an individual soul is true and scientific. The seed (bija) inside the semen is the abode of the soul.
Sexual desire is present in a human being right from birth. In childhood it is spread all over the body. As one gets older desire becomes concentrated in the genitals.
Padmashri says that there are twenty-four nerves in the vagina, which give rise to the desire for intercourse. The place where these nerves end is called 'Kama's umbrella' (the clitoris). It should be rubbed slowly with the fingers.
Of the nerves which excite sexual desire, there are two in the face, two in the eyes, one in the throat, one at the base of the thumb. Pressing these nerves in an embrace soon excites desire. Scratching the ears, thighs, lower back, and forehead with the nails excites sexuality.
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Sati, asati, subhaga, durbhaga, putri, duhitrini are the six great nerves in the vulva, which give rise to an irresistible urge for intercourse when excited. Deep inside the vagina are the putri and duhitrini nerves. In the left part of the vulva is sati, in the right, the asati.
At a little distance inside the vaginal canal are the subhaga and durbhaga nerves. Hugging excites the sati nerve; caressing both the armpits excites the sati. Kissing excites the subhaga; caressing the waist excites the durbhaga.
Kissing the face excites the putri and caressing the buttocks produces agitation in the duhitrini, which leads to immediate orgasm. 2.3.4 Women are tender not only in body but also in character and mind. They should be handled as if they were flowers so that they neither fade nor lose their scent.
If force is used in embracing or kissing them, a lifelong fear, suspicion, or hate can distort their minds. The first three days [of marriage] demand utmost care. If within this period any kind of aversion arises toward the man, then it will always remain in the mind as hate.
A woman's modesty should also be taken into account. Women prefer intercourse in the dark. Generally, intercourse depends on the two mental inclinations of love and sexual hunger.
Love makes one generous and sentimental, and sexual hunger makes one selfish. 2.3.32 Lips are considered the most important part of kissing because they are the tenderest parts of the body. Lips carry an electric charge which, when touched, excites those nerves and joints that carry an internal flow of this electric current.
This electric current is responsible for the pleasure given by touch. 2.4, end Medical science is of the opinion that the upper part of a woman's skin has some areas which are connected to the womb. Exciting them slowly or rapidly in certain directions not only arouses desire but creates preliminary conditions for intercourse.
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Women are liable to become epileptic if these areas are not properly handled. That is why to preserve her mental and bodily health it is essential to use the nails and teeth on those parts of a woman's body that are recognized as erotic centres. 2.6, end It is quite acceptable for an authoritative treatise (shastra) to mention, describe, and reflect upon all kinds of sexual practices, whether good or bad, and to seek to understand their real import.
But what can be the purpose of sculptures depicting intercourse and other sexual acts found in our ancient temples? If we study human behaviour closely, we find that in every human being a wish for salvation is born only after he is fully satisfied. Total satisfaction and salvation are the two goals of our existence.
The sculptures of couples engaged in sexual intercourse found on the temples of Konarak, Puri, Khajuraho, and other places represent the first goal of life. That is why they are shown on the outside walls of the temple. Salvation is the second goal, which is represented by the image of the god in the inner sanctum.
When she brings her mouth close to her husband's for a kiss, her breasts press against his chest. At this time, the woman fully imitates the man. She scratches, bites, hits, kisses in the same way as the man.
Then she laughs like a victor and says, 'First, you laid me low. Now I am taking revenge by laying you under me.' But when her sexual desire is satisfied, she becomes bashful and closes her eyes. She lies down on the cot because she is tired.
Then she starts to show her love towards her husband like a man. 2.10, end All men and women have their own distinctive smells. Bodily smell is related to the surge of sexuality.
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With the onset of youth, a man or a woman gets a distinct smell. One sometimes hears about incidents in which a beautiful girl belonging to a good family surrenders completely to a low-born, ugly man. These surprising incidents can be attributed to the effect of smell.
Saffron, musk, ambergris, and sandalwood are substances whose scent is similar to that of women and thus have a high sexual significance. That may be why women have traditionally used them. One thing is certain: bodily smell creates an atmosphere around itself which either attracts or repels.
3.1, end Vatsyayana says that it is the opinion of some teachers that one should marry a girl with whom one falls in love. The Apastamba-dharmasutra is of the same opinion. But before translating this scriptural injunction into practice, it is necessary to use one's own judgement.
If a girl is physically handicapped or does not belong to an equal caste-group, then one should not marry her even if one is in love. 3.2, end The core of whatever Vatsyayana has to say in this useful exposition on how to relax a girl is that a man needs to be a specialist in the psychology of women. Without a knowledge of a woman's emotions, his marriage and married life will be failures.
3.5, end Love marriage has been common in India since ancient times and has enjoyed great popularity. The choosing of a husband in open assembly by a princess was a love marriage. Nala and Damayanti, Aja and Indumati, Rama and Sita, Udayana and Vasavadatta, Malati and Madhava were all married in this way.
In Vatsyayana's view, even though love-marriage is not ritually the highest form of marriage, it is still pre-eminent. This is because the ultimate goal of marriage is to develop love between the couple, and a love-marriage has this from the beginning. 4.2.45 The unfortunate among these second-hand women are those who are harassed by the other co-wives.
Such an unlucky woman should take the side of a co-wife who is favoured by the husband. She should show the arts that can be exhibited because a demonstration of proficiency often ends misfortune. 5.1, end In this section Vatsyayana has described ten sexual states of man which come to the fore at the time of separation from a woman.
It is not necessary that these states become manifest only in relation to another man's wife. These ten states appear whenever desire is frustrated. Whether the object of desire is a man or woman, one's own wife or another man's, this section is concerned with the states when the object is unavailable.
The ten states mentioned by Vatsyayana torment not only men but also women. Just as men sleep with other men's wives, women sleep with other women's husbands. The effort made by a man to sleep with the wife of another man is the same as made by a woman to sleep with the husband of another woman.
It is a different matter that men have more courage and are less shy while women are more diffident in this particular enterprise. But one should not turn one's face away from the reality that, like men, women too desire other men. The conversation between Yama and Yami in the Rig Veda gives evidence of this.
Commenting on the Chandogya Upanishad's statement, 'Do not refuse any woman', Shankara says that one should not turn away a lustful woman who comes to one's bed, while Ramanuja writes in his commentary, 'To sleep with another man's wife when her longing for intercourse is intense is part of the worship of Shiva, and the adultery is not forbidden.' Besides, the Puranic legends of Ahalya and Indra, Kunti and the Sun, the stories of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, Malati and Madhava, and many other love stories testify to an unbroken chain of adultery since creation. 5.6, end Like Vatsyayana, other scholars of erotics have also inquired into the causes of women's sexual misconduct.
Padmashri says that women should take care not to indulge in or listen to lewd talk when they go out to festivals, on pilgrimages, to temples, houses of neighbours or to the fields, because the intoxication of youth robs them of discrimination and they are apt to lose their chastity and virginity. 6.2, end The author of the Kamasutra has not asked why men frequent courtesans in spite of having young, beautiful, and accomplished wives at home. The answer to this question is given by the verses that speak of the courtesan's erotic accomplishments.
Actually, courtesans are educated in sexual play since childhood. How to attract a man, how to make him a slave through sex, are arts which are uniquely those of the courtesan, not of a housewife. 6.3, end The essence of this section on the nature of a courtesan is found in the dialogue between the sage Maricha and the courtesan Kamamanjari in Dandin's Dashakumaracharita.
Kamamanjari says that there is an inborn tendency among courtesans to try to transform a girl into a celestial beauty. All the ways mentioned in the texts on erotics and beauty are employed to make her beautiful. From childhood, the girl eats a balanced diet so that bodily defects are corrected and her attractiveness increases.
After she becomes five years old, she is hidden from men in such a way that even her father cannot meet her. From this age onwards, the girl is educated in the sixty-four arts and is taught different languages. All kinds of ways to cheat and deceive are taught to her.
The arts of intercourse are imparted by a man who will not cause her much pain and will also remain discreet. 6.5, end The Kamasutra recommends to the courtesan that she determine her own fee according to the country, its state of affairs, the times she is living in, her qualities, beauty, etc. But Kautilya's Arthashastra gives the right of fixing her fees not to the courtesan but to the administration.
Kautilya would appoint a Commissioner of Courtesans who keeps an eye on their security and their doings, keeps track of their visitors and income, and lays down the fee to be charged. The independence enjoyed by the courtesan at the time the Kamasutra was composed was absent at the time of the composition of the Arthashastra. 7.2, end A man cannot satisfy a woman through intercourse once his sexual power weakens.
The woman then becomes detached and depressed. Women who suppress their strong wish for intercourse under such conditions often fall sick. They become epileptic, are subject to fainting fits, and become irritable by nature.
Vatsyayana has said that a man who comes too soon should first excite the woman and make her wet by means other than intercourse. Such a way of proceeding satisfies both man and woman. At what time each part of a woman's body is erotically sensitive can be learned through a study of the principles of Moon-Art [a theory that links different parts of a woman's body to different phases of the moon].
Pressing the appropriate part of the woman's body at a particular time excites her and she soon becomes wet. The man who comes too soon, whose sexual power has weakened, but who still wants the pleasure of intercourse, should practise Yoga. The Yogashastras talk of the Ashvini-mudra.
A person who attains proficiency in this particular mudra will remain sexually adequate.
Kamasutra
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Oxford World’S Classics
The Oxford World's Classics Website www.worldsclassics.co.uk • Information about new titles • Explore the full range of Oxford World's Classics • Links to other literary sites and the main OUP webpage • Imaginative competitions, with bookish prizes • Peruse the Oxford World's Classics Magazine • Articles by editors • Extracts from Introductions • A forum for discussion and feedback on the series • Special information for teachers and lecturers www.worldsclassics.co.uk American Literature British and Irish Literature Children's Literature Classics and Ancient Literature Colonial Literature Eastern Literature European Literature History Medieval Literature Oxford English Drama Poetry Philosophy Politics Religion The Oxford Shakespeare A complete list of Oxford Paperbacks, including Oxford World's Classics, Oxford Shakespeare, Oxford Drama, and Oxford Paperback Reference, is available in the UK from the Academic Division Publicity Department, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP. In the USA, complete lists are available from the Paperbacks Marketing Manager, Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
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Footnote
57 One of the Jayamangala manuscripts says it was written under King Vishaladeva (1243-61), and it is quoted in 1307 by Jinaprabha in his commentary on the Kalpasutra. Yashodhara's detailed knowledge of South India has led some scholars to suggest that he might have come from the South, the place that Vatsyayana so despised, but there is far too little evidence to judge this.
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56 Kakar and Ross, Tales of Love, 202
57 One of the Jayamangala manuscripts says it was written under King Vishaladeva (1243-61), and it is quoted in 1307 by Jinaprabha in his commentary on the Kalpasutra. Yashodhara's detailed knowledge of South India has led some scholars to suggest that he might have come from the South, the place that Vatsyayana so despised, but there is far too little evidence to judge this. 58 Amartya Sen remarked, 'There is a similar neglect [in the West] of Indian writings on nonreligious subjects, from mathematics, epistemology, and natural science to economics and linguistics.
(The exception, I suppose, is the Kama Sutra, in which Western readers have managed to cultivate an interest)', Sen, 'East and West', 36. 59 The title-page read: 'The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, Translated from the Sanscrit. In Seven Parts, with Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks.
Cosmopoli: 1883: for the Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares, and for private circulation only.' 60 Archer, 'Preface', 36. 61 This form of gentlemanly appropriation repeated itself almost a century later, when Alex Comfort, a doctor with no formal Sanskrit training, made a brief trip to India in 1964 and immediately published a quite erudite translation of the Koka Shashtra, complete with a preface by William G. Archer (who had written the preface to the first legal edition of the Burton Kama Sutra just one year earlier).
Were there Indian scholars who did for Comfort the work that the two pandits did for Arbuthnot and Burton? When Comfort died, his obituary in the 29 March 2000 New York Times began: 'Dr. Alex Comfort, whose graphically illustrated 1972 book The Joy of Sex became the coffee-table Kama Sutra of the baby-boom generation, died on Sunday …' But the Times also stated with confidence that Comfort had translated the Koka Shashtra from the Sanskrit.
62 Brodie, The Devil Drives, 357. 63 Archer, 'Preface', 17; see also Doniger, "I have Scinde".' 64 Even the author of The Cartoon Kama Sutra had her doubts: 'Burton … was reputed to speak over 50 languages, but [and she quotes a mistranslation from Burton's Arabian Nights]. So who knows what was written in the original Kama Sutra?' 65 Archer, 'Preface', 28.
67 The first edition was printed with the commentary of Yashodhara, except on Book Seven. The new edition, published in Bombay in 1905, was edited by Kedara-Natha Sarma, with Yashodhara's commentary on Book Seven. 68 The Anangaranga has only ten chapters, with a total of some 453 verses, in comparison with the Kamasutra's 1,492 or 1,683 passages.
72 None of these texts, apparently, was cited in the later printed editions. 73 Brodie, The Devil Drives, 357. 75 Archer, 'Preface', 36, citing a note from Arbuthnot to H.
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Ashbee (apparently published in 1885 in Catena Librorum Tacendorum). 76 In our day, the parallels that come to mind are Grove Press or even, perhaps, Larry Flynt. 77 Müller published the first volume of a selected English translation in 1869, and the second volume in 1891, having published the first complete edition of the Sanskrit text, with Sayana's commentary, in 1849 and the second edition in 1890.
In perhaps sardonic appreciation for this 'discovery', Hindus often pun on Max Müller's name, calling him Moksha Mula, or 'the root of Release'. 78 Unfortunately, it took longer for academics to make full use of the text. Sir Monier Monier-Williams, who composed, in 1899, the great Sanskrit-English dictionary still used by most scholars, lists Vatsyayana but not the Kamasutra as potential sources and seldom, if ever, cites a word from that text in his lexicon.
79 Brodie, The Devil Drives, 358. 80 At 4.1.9, they translate the agentive form of the same word ('a magician who uses love-sorcery worked with roots') as 'witch', showing a basic understanding of the term. 82 This habit has unfortunately corrupted almost every translator except Richard Schmidt, the first to translate the commentary separately, thus freeing it from the text; Mylius, too, keeps the commentary out of the text.
83 Monier-Williams tells us that it is a root, Arum campanulatum (probably arrowroot), 'in modern dialects applied to the yam, potato, etc.' 84 Brodie, The Devil Drives, 359. 85 Vatsyayana does use lingam for the male sexual organ in Book Seven, but that has an entirely different tone from the rest of the text. Yashodhara uses lingam and yoni more often, but he too uses several other words.
86 Jaghana could most literally be rendered as 'bottom', but only in the British sense of the word (genital) rather than the American (anal). 87 Skanda Purana 1.8.18-19; Doniger, The Bedtrick, 397. There are interesting parallels here with Plato's Symposium, which tells of a primeval androgyne that split into the ancestors of men and women, who therefore always try to get back together again.
88 Indeed, in some instances National Geographic actually darkened the skin colour of a partially naked Polynesian woman 'in order to render her nudity more acceptable to American audiences' (Lutz and Collins, Reading National Geographic, 82). 90 Schmidt, like the first printed edition of the Sanskrit text, lacked Yashodhara's commentary on Book Seven. 91 Cited by Archer, 'Preface', 28.
92 Lee Siegel's fictional Sanskritist, Roth, made a 'perverse endeavor to translate the section on fellatial procedures in a way that reverses the conventional nineteenth-century practice of rendering the transgressive texts of a foreign-language discourse into Latin, to put the clean parts in Latin and the dirty parts in English'. 94 In translating the very first Yashodhara passage, for instance, Daniélou stumbles on the most basic step: separating the Sanskrit words (which are printed with the end of each word combined with the beginning of the next, changing both words in accordance with complex rules).
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Where the text reads tam upayam achikhyasur acaryamallanaga, which we render, 'wishing to explain that method, the scholar Vatsyayana Mallanaga …' Daniélou makes the break differently: tam upayam achikhya asuracaryamallanaga. This deprives the verb ('explain') of its desiderative ending and extracts the word asura, designating a kind of demon or anti-god, from a combination of that desiderative ending (asur, 'wishing to') and the beginning of acarya ('scholar'), with this result: 'the prophet of the Asuras, Vatsyayana Mallanaga … created this science, after studying its means of accomplishment.' A startling mythological assertion indeed, but, alas, not in the text.
95 Laura Desmond did the fundamental research for the bibliography and for the discussion of the history of the text and the translations, in the introduction. Ajay Rao tracked down the Latin and English names of the Sanskrit plants for Book Seven. Shubha Pathak hunted down all the books and articles we used in Chicago.
Vibhuti Mishra of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan provided the information on Devadatta Shastri. David Shulman, Patrick Olivelle, Sheldon Pollock, Dominik Wujastyk, and Richard Gombrich gave precious advice on some of the more recalcitrant parts of the Sanskrit text. We are indebted to Sarah Engel for producing, as her project in the Radcliffe Institute's summer publishing programme, a virtual publication of a mythical translation of the Kamasutra translation by Wendy Doniger, the blurbs for which were so persuasive that they inspired the production of this actual volume-life, as usual, mirroring art.
96 Goswami's version of Vatsyayana's text differs from Shastri's only from time to time, and not always with a better reading, but it has a far more complete and less corrupt version of Yashodhara's commentary than Shastri has, particularly for Books Six and Seven. 97 Shastri and Goswami number the passages differently, though they number the sections in the same way. Schmidt and Burton do not number the passages at all; Syrkin uses Goswami's system, while Mylius and most of the Indian translators use Shastri's.
98 We have used Goswami's readings of Vatsyayana at 3.4.1, 4.2.45, 5.1.51, 5.3.28, 5.4.54-7, 5.6.19, 6.4.41, 6.5.7, 6.5.14, and 6.5.35. 99 Since we have not aspired to a complete translation of Yashodhara, we did not think it necessary to specify which edition of the commentary we were using for each particular passage.
100 I owe this observation to Judith Butler, personal communication, January 2001. 101 Either the man or the woman may be the agent in 2.6.8, for instance. 102 2.6.3, 8, 10, 11, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32.
103 2.7.9-11, 14, 19; 2.7.15, 20Y. 104 2.7.8, 12-13, 15, 20-1. In Book Four, chapter two, the female protagonist is seldom named but is simply the assumed, unexpressed subject of the verb, while a demonstrative pronoun usually designates her rival.
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In our translation, we have generally used 'she' to designate the subject under discussion (first the senior wife, then the junior wife) and 'her' or 'the other woman' for her rival (first the junior wife, then the senior wife); sometimes we have supplied the full noun. And when the wife and the messenger are conversing [5.4.3-31], and only the context and the use of different Sanskrit pronouns (designating a person nearer or more distant) indicates who is speaking, we occasionally carried forward the referent noun from the previous line to replace the ambiguous pronoun.
Perversely, they insist that you must swear you are 18 years old or over to use this site-which is, after all, about a children's book. 106 Anonyme du XIVe Siècle, Le Kamasutra Catalan. 107 Mr Boffo cartoon by Joe Martin, Inc., distributed by Universal Press Syndicate; published in the Chicago Tribune 29 September 2000.
A salesman is saying to a customer, 'Most people just buy it to get the catalogue.' 108 Cosmopolitan, September 1998, 'The Cosmo Kamasutra'; September, 1999, pp. 256-9, 'The Cosmo Kamasutra, 2'. 109 One combines all of Burton's erotica: The Illustrated KamaSutra, Ananga-Ranga, Perfumed Garden.
In America, where information comes in at the eye, like love according to the poet Yeats, a translator foolish enough to tell a friend that he or she is working on the Kamasutra is invariably and immediately asked, Will it have illustrations? This is, in part, because the descriptions of the positions are so stark that they are sometimes hard to visualize without the help of a detailed image. 110 Pichard, The Illustrated Kama Sutra, i, 72, presumably illustrating 2.7.24.
111 Tolputt, The Cartoon Kama Sutra, and Manara's Kama Sutra. 112 The Onion, 30 March-5 April 2000, 8, 'Tantric Sex Class Opens up Whole New World of Unfulfillment for Local Couple'. 113 Jon Spayde, 'The Politically Correct Kama Sutra', 56.
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1 Those who talk about pleasure say that pleasure is the most important of the three aims of human life,* because it is both the cause and the result of the other two, religion and power. And realizing that nothing happens without a method to make it happen, and wishing to explain that method, the scholar Vatsyayana Mallanaga created this text, always taking into consideration the opinions of scholars.
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Yashodhara’S Commentary
1 Those who talk about pleasure say that pleasure is the most important of the three aims of human life,* because it is both the cause and the result of the other two, religion and power. And realizing that nothing happens without a method to make it happen, and wishing to explain that method, the scholar Vatsyayana Mallanaga created this text, always taking into consideration the opinions of scholars. You can, of course, learn about pleasure from other teachings, just as you can read meaning into a hole shaped like a letter of the alphabet that a bookworm has eaten out of a page, but you do not understand what you should do and what you should not do.
And so people say: A man should not be congratulated if he happens to succeed at something without knowing its science, for it is pure chance, like a bookworm eating a hole in the shape of a letter of the alphabet. 2 The three aims of human life are the three divinities in charge of this work; if they were not divinities it would not be right to bow to them. And there is textual evidence that they are in fact divinities.
For the historian tells us: 'When King Pururavas went from earth to heaven to see Indra, the king of the gods, he saw Religion (Dharma) and the others embodied. As he approached them, he ignored the other two but paid homage to Religion, walking around him in a circle to the right. The other two, unable to put up with this slight, cursed him.
Because Pleasure (Kama) had cursed him, he was separated from his wife, Urvashi, and longed for her in her absence. When he had managed to put that right, then, because Power (Artha) had cursed him, he became so excessively greedy that he stole from all four social classes. The Brahmins, who were upset because they could no longer perform the sacrifice or other rituals without the money he had stolen from them, took blades of sharp sacrificial grass in their hands and killed him.' 5 Desire brings happiness and children, but hatred brings neither, and what sustains someone who has neither happiness nor offspring is like a blade of grass.
7 Brihaspati composed the text called the Arthashastra. 8 This is not some other person named Nandin, for the scripture says: 'While the Great God Shiva was experiencing the pleasures of sex with his wife Uma for a thousand years as the gods count them, Nandin went to guard the door of their bedroom and composed the Kamasutra.'* 9 Shvetaketu Auddalaki was the son of Uddalaka. Once upon a time, there was so much seduction of other men's wives in the world that it was said: Women are all alike, just like cooked rice, your majesty.
Therefore a man should not get angry with them nor fall in love with them, but just make love with them. But Auddalaki forbade this state of affairs, and so people said: The son of the guru forbade Brahmins to drink wine, but the seer, Uddalaka's son, even forbade common people to take other people's wives. Then, with his father's permission, Shvetaketu, who had amassed great ascetic power, happily composed this text, which distinguishes those who are eligible or ineligible for sex.* 11 A certain Brahmin from Mathura was living in Pataliputra.
In his old age he had a son, whose mother died giving birth to him. The father gave him to another Brahmin woman to be her own son and, in time, went to the other world. She named him Dattaka ('little gift'), because he had been given to her, and she raised him; he learned all the arts and sciences in a short time.
One day he had the idea of learning the finest ways of the world, best known by courtesans. And so he went to the courtesans every day, and learned so well that they asked him to instruct them. A woman named Virasena, speaking on behalf of the courtesans de luxe, said to him, 'Teach us how to give pleasure to men.' And because of that commission he made a separate book; so the story goes.
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But another quite plausible story is also widely believed: Dattaka once touched Shiva with his foot in the course of a festival to bless a pregnant woman, and Shiva cursed him to become a woman; after a while he persuaded Shiva to rescind the curse and became a man again, and because of that double knowledge he made the separate book. If he had simply made a separate work out of what Babhravya had said, how would his own book have demonstrated such originality that people would say that he knew both flavours?
But if the author of the Kamasutra had known that he had such double knowledge, then he would have said, 'Dattaka, who knew both flavours, made a separate book.' 13 The text referred to here is Babhravya's text.
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Kamasutra 1 A man is the main subject here; women's lack of freedom makes their pursuit of the three human goals dependent upon men. The three aims of human life are combined in the following ways: When a man who wants children unites with his legal but unattractive wife in her fertile season, religion is combined with power.
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Argument
Kamasutra 1 A man is the main subject here; women's lack of freedom makes their pursuit of the three human goals dependent upon men. The three aims of human life are combined in the following ways: When a man who wants children unites with his legal but unattractive wife in her fertile season, religion is combined with power. When a man who wants children unites with his legal and attractive wife in her fertile season, religion is combined with pleasure.
When an unmarried man takes an unattractive virgin of his own class, power is combined with religion. When a married man takes an attractive virgin of a lower class, power is combined with pleasure. When a man unites with his legal and attractive wife, not in her fertile season but because she is tormented by desire, pleasure is combined with religion.
When a married man who has nothing unites with an attractive woman of any class, pleasure is combined with power. These are the single combinations. When an unmarried man joins, in the proper manner, with an attractive woman of his own class who has had no other man before him, religion is combined with pleasure and power.
When an unmarried man gets an attractive virgin of his own class, power is combined with religion and pleasure. When an unmarried man gets a woman who has money and beauty, and they desire one another, pleasure is combined with religion and power. These are the double combinations.
2 There is a saying: Until the age of sixteen a man is a child, as long as he eats rice cooked in milk; he is middle-aged until he is seventy; and after that he is said to be old. 4 There are four classes in this world,* the Brahmins and the three others, and there are four stages of life: the chaste student, the householder, the forest dweller, and the renouncer. But since release (moksha) is out of the question for householders, whether they are Brahmins or of other classes, for them the human goals remain a trinity.
6 He must not pursue pleasure until he has completed his mastery of knowledge. Otherwise, he will violate religion, thereby producing an obstacle to gaining pleasure, and he will fail to get knowledge and power. But there is no rule against acquiring something such as land during this period.
9 'And so forth' includes jewellery and clothing. 12 This experience bears fruit because, when it goes on uninterrupted, it results in an emission of semen and, simultaneously, pleasure and bliss. 14 Power is more important than pleasure, since pleasure can only be achieved with power; and religion is more important than power, since power can only be achieved with religion.
15 The basis of social life is the behaviour of the four classes and the four stages of life. It is the religious duty of the king to protect this, knowing that it must not change. And he can do that only if he has political power, and his political power lies in his treasury, his law enforcers, and his army, all of which come from power and money.
Flow 350
As for a courtesan, she will give up religion (in the form of a lovesick Brahmin) or pleasure (in the form of an attractive man-about-town), thinking, 'Both of them will come later', and take up instead with a man even if she does not desire him, thinking, 'This one will give me money.' 17 Even animals like cows, whose intellects are shrouded in torpor, visibly manage sex without instruction from a textbook; how much more must this happen among humans, whose intellects consist primarily of passion?* As it is said: For desire is satisfied without instruction, and does not have to be taught. Who is the guru for deer and birds, for the methodology to give and take pleasure with those they desire?
And desire goes on all the time, because the qualities of wanting and hating are always there in the soul. These scholars are people who talk about religion, power, and release. 20 There is no guarding or any other form of concealment, because the females of the species are loose.
Animals mate only during their fertile season. Humans who want children, however, do it during a woman's fertile season but also outside her fertile season,* in order to enjoy and please the woman. So animals and humans are not the same.
And so the law book says: You may have sex with a woman in her fertile season -or any time when it is not expressly forbidden. And animals engage in sex just until they achieve a climax; they do not wonder, 'Has he reached his climax or not?' and therefore wish to mate a second time. And so, since the goal of animals and humans is not the same, animals need no method for sex.
Animals, moreover, do not first think, before engaging in sex, 'What will happen to religion, power, sons, relatives, and the prosperity of our faction?' Sex just happens to animals in their own way. 21 Materialists (Lokayatikas) are people whose thinking is limited (ayata) to this world (loka). 22 Someone will take money in his own hand and put it in someone else's hand, thinking, 'In time of need I myself might go there and get back what I lost and use it to get something to eat', but in fact he is throwing it far away.
In precisely the same way, someone who engages in an act such as sacrifice, thinking, 'I will enjoy this in another life', actually throws it far away. 29 Even though Bali was unworthy, because he was a demon, and should have been spurned, he ascended to the throne of Indra, king of the gods, and established himself there until the wheel of fortune turned around, and he was thrown out of that seat and hurled back down into hell. But when the wheel of fortune turns back around again, it will once again send him out of hell and back onto the throne of Indra.
And so people say: Time ripens and cooks all beings, time absorbs all creatures, time is awake when all are asleep, for no one can fight against time. 32 Good people, experienced in knowledge or in asceticism, abandon a man who is attached to desire. Bad projects would involve going out to meet a woman at night, jumping over walls, and so forth.
Ladder 351
A man without a future has lost his strength with venereal diseases like 'Desire's donkey'. 35 Dandakya was out hunting when he saw the daughter of the Brahmin Bhargava in his hermitage. Overwhelmed by passion, he took her up in his chariot and carried her off.
When Bhargava returned with the fuel and sacred grass that he had gone off to fetch, and did not see her, he meditated to learn what had happened and then he cursed the king. As a result, Dandakya and his entire family and kingdom were covered by a dust-storm and died. Even today they sing about that place, the Dandaka Wilderness.
36 The king of the gods, Indra, was aroused by Ahalya; for when he saw her in the hermitage of her husband Gautama, he desired her.* When Gautama returned with the fuel and sacred grass, his wife Ahalya hid Indra in the womb of the house, but just at that moment Gautama took his wife into the inside of the house, with an invitation to make love. Then he realized, with the magic gaze that he had achieved through yoga, that Indra had come there, and seeing that a third seat had been drawn up for him he said, 'What is this for, since only the two of us, my wife and I, are here?' Then he became suspicious, and by meditation he saw what had happened; in fury he cursed Indra: 'You yourself will have a thousand vaginas!' And so, even though Indra was the king of the gods, desire brought him to this sorry state, which was regarded as his destruction.
Even to this day that mark that makes people call him 'Ahalya's Lover' has not vanished. As for Kichaka, he is said to have been superpowerful because he had the strength of a thousand elephants; but even he was destroyed by desire, for Bhima killed him when he lusted after Draupadi. 38 People must be aware in order to take preventive measures, just as they take measures against the diseases of the body such as indigestion.
And there is a saying: 'The existence of men who hate pleasure is meaningless as the existence of blades of grass. But one must avoid its fatal flaws.' Scholars made this a fixed rule. 39 But atheists, those who lack all ambition, and those who hate pleasure win a happiness that does have thorns, because each of these three groups lacks one of the three aims of human life.
41 For example, through too much generosity, religion impedes power and pleasure; power, when it overrides all else, impedes religion and pleasure (as it did for Pururavas); and pleasure destroys the other two when it involves women of a higher class (as in the case of Dandakya) or other excesses.
Compare 352
Hub 353
Cycle 354
Flow 355
Ladder 356
part01-ch03fn
Kamasutra 2 The prime of her youth is the period while she is still in her father's house. 6 If just one person who knows the text practises it, another learns it from him, and another from him, and so on, no matter how far removed.
Compare 357
Argument
Kamasutra 2 The prime of her youth is the period while she is still in her father's house. 6 If just one person who knows the text practises it, another learns it from him, and another from him, and so on, no matter how far removed. 8 Even people who are not astronomers pick up the information from somewhere or other.
But in this case, too, the text is the ultimate source. 14 The word 'but' is used to distinguish women from men, who, because of their independence, easily find instructors. The foster-sister is the daughter of her wet-nurse.
Her own sister, that is, her older sister, can teach her if she trusts her enough to make love with another man right under her eyes. Otherwise a sister would not want to teach even her own sister, because of their rivalry. 15 They cut shapes out of the leaves of trees such as birches, to decorate their foreheads; they make lines in the form of designs on the jewelled floors of temples of Sarasvati or the god Kama, with rice-powder of various colours.
Unusual techniques are various spells to make someone stop loving someone else, or to reduce someone to a single sense organ, or turn his hair grey, and so forth, as will be described in the discussion of 'Erotic Esoterica' [Book Seven]. They complete words by putting on the final syllable; difficult words can be tongue-twisters or anagrams; they complete verses by adding the last quarter to a verse of four parts. Woodworking is useful for making things like sex tools, carpentry for making things like chairs and beds.
Clothes are used to disguise something small to make it look big, and something big to make it look small. Athletic skills include things like hunting. 17 While a prostitute is generally called by the common title of courtesan (veshya), this woman wins the special title of courtesan de luxe (ganika), because she has these special marks of a courtesan de luxe.
20 She can make a living by teaching these sciences.
Hub 358
Cycle 359
Flow 360
Ladder 361
Compare 362
Hub 363
Cycle 364
part01-ch04fn
Kamasutra 1 If he is a Brahmin, he gets his money from gifts; a king or warrior, from conquest; a commoner, from trade; and a servant, from wages earned by working as an artisan, a travelling bard, or something of that sort. 4 The inner bedroom is where the wives sleep.
Flow 365
Argument
Kamasutra 1 If he is a Brahmin, he gets his money from gifts; a king or warrior, from conquest; a commoner, from trade; and a servant, from wages earned by working as an artisan, a travelling bard, or something of that sort. 4 The inner bedroom is where the wives sleep. The outer bedroom is for sex.
The couch is for the man to sleep on after sex. That is what decent people do; but the lovers of courtesans sleep together with them in the bedroom, and have no need for a couch. And so there is a saying: The lover makes love with his beloved wherever he happens to be, but a wise man, a pure man, does not sleep there on that polluted bed.
The lemon bark is chewed to dispel the bad taste in the mouth and prevent bad breath; about this there is a saying: The lover who, in the evening, sucks a stick of lemon bark, smeared with honey, is not plagued by foul breath when he is caught in the net of his woman's arms. The book is understood to be a book of recent poetry, to read aloud. 5 He uses oil in small quantities, because he is no man-about-town if he uses large amounts.
He colours his lips with a ball of moist red lac and fixes it with a small ball of beeswax. He puts a ball of sweet-smelling mouth-wash in his cheek and takes some betel in his hand to use later.
6 He has the hair shaved from his hidden place with a razor every fifth day, and then, every tenth day, has his body hair pulled out by the roots, because it grows so fast. The sweat that breaks out after any activity must be constantly removed with a rag, to prevent a bad smell and a consequent lack of sophistication. 16 Visiting players are actors and dancers who arrive from somewhere else.
If one of the visiting players falls ill or is in mourning, or attends a celebration such as a wedding, one of the invited players takes his place, in order not to cancel the performance, or if one of the invited players has a misfortune or a celebration, one of the visiting players takes his place. 17 Visitors are men who have the standing of men-about-town and come from somewhere else to see the festival. They honour them with such things as garlands and perfumed oils, and protect them by giving them assistance in case of disaster.
The companies are made up of the players and men-about-town, invited and visiting. 27 Here he mentions the general games: Goblin Night is a night of pleasure, on which, because the goblins are near, most people light lamps. Full Moon Vigil takes place on the night of the full moon when the moon is in the Pleiades (October-November), when the moon is especially bright, and people play with swings and lamps.
The Spring Festival is the festival of the god Kama, which people celebrate by playing, dancing, singing, and making music. Those are the widespread games. 28 Here he describes the regional games.
Ladder 366
The game of lotus stems is played near ponds; people play games with new leaves in the forests, after the first rain; 'one silk-cotton tree' is a game, played in Vidarbha, in which they find one single, great silk-cotton (shalmali) tree laden with blossoms and play with its blossoms. The festivals and so forth are just for the men-about-town, while the public games are for both the common people and the men-about-town. 31 He is said to have nothing but his body because he has no son or wife.
His collapsible chair is a small seat on sticks that swings down from his back to support his body. The libertine is called a pithamarda ('stool-crusher') because he gives his instructions while 'crushing' a collapsible chair called a 'stool'. With this, he lives the life of a scholar.
32 He is called a vita ('pander') because he 'makes a noise' (vitati), that is to say, he tells stories, between one person and another. 33 He has no wealth or has used up his wealth, has nothing but his body or has a wife, is a local or a visitor, and cannot live as he used to do. 35 A beggar woman (bhikshuki) is the wife of a male beggar (bhikshuka).
All of these types of women are sophisticated in the arts, for they, too, are always procuring things for battles and truces, and so they are called Procuresses.
Compare 367
Hub 368
Cycle 369
Flow 370
Ladder 371
Compare 372
part01-ch05fn
Kamasutra 1 These are legitimate sons. 2 Sex with women of classes lower than his own caste is not forbidden, nor is it encouraged with such women even if they have not been expelled, that is, excluded from sharing dishes; for there are some women who, when they eat from a dish, pollute it so that it cannot be purified simply by being cleaned.
Hub 373
Argument
Kamasutra 1 These are legitimate sons. 2 Sex with women of classes lower than his own caste is not forbidden, nor is it encouraged with such women even if they have not been expelled, that is, excluded from sharing dishes; for there are some women who, when they eat from a dish, pollute it so that it cannot be purified simply by being cleaned. And so it is said: Traditionally, only a servant woman can be the wife of a servant; she and one of his own class can be the wife of a commoner; these two and one of his own class for a king; and these three and one of his own class for a Brahmin.
A second-hand woman is one who had another man before, lost her virginity, then became a widow, and, because the flesh is weak, took another man, again. 4 'Some other reason' would be a reason other than a son or pleasure. But otherwise, without such a reason, he should not desire married women; this is what V implies, following the opinion of the followers of Babh-ravya.
V has already said that Gonikaputra wrote the book about other men's wives.
Otherwise, my enemy will get support from that great and powerful man and kill me before I have experienced all four of the aims of human life.' 9 He thinks: 'That powerful man is her husband.' 10 He thinks: 'For a man would give up his life's breaths for a friend, or even enter hell. And I must ward off my enemies to save my own body.' 11 He thinks: 'Her husband is my enemy; I will kill him silently, with a stick.
Otherwise, I will find that he will kill my family, or take them from me by violence and enjoy them himself, by force. And since he has raised a weapon to kill me, killing him does not violate religion.'* 12 He thinks: 'There is no guard, and she will give me the money out of affection. Since I am unable to support my family, I will use her enormous wealth to do deeds for the sake of religion, and so forth.
But [behind my back] she will say, "He lusts after the kingship", and so people will think, "He is working schemes against the king."' 14 He thinks: 'People will say, "He is an adulterer", and that will be the ruin of me.' 15 He thinks: 'He does what she tells him to do.
And when my enemies have gained power through him, they will kill me.' 16 He thinks: 'She will get my enemies to kill me.' Or, 'He corrupts the women I have married, by seducing them. And it is said, "An enemy's cruelty should be paid back in kind."' 17 He thinks: 'The king has hired me to spy inside the house; since there is no other means, I will become intimate with his wife, who does not trust him, and get him to come outside.' 19 He thinks: 'She will bring me a girl that I cannot attain because I have no money, a girl who is both beautiful and rich and therefore a source of the three aims of human life.
Or, when I am making love to this one, she will think, "He will get us both together", and I will seduce, at the same time, some woman or other and the woman who is the real thing.' 20 He thinks: 'My enemy, who would steal my life's breaths, sits, lives, drinks, and eats with her husband. (Above [1.5.8], it was just a matter of being intimate in a general way.) Through her, when I have become intimate with her, I will get him to drink a poison that will steal his life's breaths in a short time.' 25 A young woman of good family, married, and now in the prime of youth, can no longer be treated like a virgin.
Cycle 374
For a man uses a virgin subtly and with techniques applied one at a time, while he uses a girl who has reached the prime of youth blatantly and with everything at once. 26 There is no difference between her and the other four: virgins, secondhand women, courtesans, and the wives of other men. The widow [1.5.22] and the wandering woman ascetic [1.5.23] can be regarded like the wives of other men, because there are other reasons for taking them; the servant girl and the daughter of the courtesan de luxe [1.5.24] are like courtesans, because they are taken for pleasure; the young woman of good family [1.5.25] is like a virgin, taken for the sake of a son and family.
27 A member of the third nature is a non-male, who is different from both men and women because she is neither a man nor a woman. Or else one could regard her as a kind of courtesan, because the reason for sex with her is pleasure, obtained through oral sex. 28 Because there are no distinctions among male lovers as there are for female lovers, the one kind of lover is involved with virgins, secondhand women, and courtesans, and everyone knows him well.
But when that same lover seeks an excessive pleasure with the wives of other men, in order to get something special, he becomes the second kind of lover, concealed. The best kind has all the good qualities, the middling kind has half, and the worst kind has just a quarter; a man who lacks all of the good qualities is no lover at all. 'Both' refers to both male and female lovers.* 29 The 'but' means that these women are not eligible even for the reasons discussed above.
A leper is marked by a disgusting disease. A lunatic can do anything but finds no pleasure in it. A woman fallen from her own caste because of some major crime makes any man who associates with her fallen, too.
A woman who tells secrets embarrasses her lover. A woman who expresses, in public, her desire for her lover shames him and causes trouble for him. A woman whose prime of youth is almost entirely gone destroys the lifespan and vigour of the man who serves her.
A woman who is bad-smelling in her hidden places and in her mouth turns a man away from sex. A woman friend is a contemporary of his wife. A wandering woman ascetic, who has taken a vow under some order or other, is forbidden because having her would obstruct both religion and power.
And so it is said: A man who sheds his seed in the womb that was his own, or in maidens, low-caste women, or the wives of his son or friend, is equal to a man who defiles his teacher's marriage-bed.* 30 If, besides her own husband, she has five men as husbands, she is a loose woman and eligible for everyone who has a good reason. Draupadi,* however, who had Yudhishthira and the others as her own husbands, was not eligible for other men.
Flow 375
How could one woman have several husbands? Ask the authors of the Epic! 32 A foster-brother is a child who drank milk at the wet-nurse's breast along with the man.
He is like the friend who played in the sand with him but is mentioned separately because of the intensity of his affection.
Ladder 376
Compare 377
Hub 378
Cycle 379
Flow 380
part02-ch01fn
Kamasutra 1 The sexual organ is called the 'sign' (lingam), because it is the sign of femaleness and so forth. From texts and from experience it is known that the male organ is convex and the female organ concave.
Ladder 381
Argument
Kamasutra 1 The sexual organ is called the 'sign' (lingam), because it is the sign of femaleness and so forth. From texts and from experience it is known that the male organ is convex and the female organ concave. If the man's penis is small, like a hare's, he is called a 'hare'; if medium, a 'bull'; if large, a 'stallion'.
The word 'however' indicates that women are distinct; they have a different nomenclature because they have a different sexual organ. Knowing this, scholars called them 'doe' and so forth instead of female hare' and so forth. And they spoke of the distinguishing marks in this way: The size of the penis is divided into the three categories of 'hare' and so forth, according to the length, in graduated order: six, nine, and twelve [fingers].* Its circumference should measure equal to its length.
But some say, 'There is no fixed rule about the circumference.' Women are divided in the same way in common parlance: 'does' and so forth, just like 'hares' and so forth, with regard to both length and circumference. 2 The three equal couplings, characterized by the equal size of the opening and the inserted organ, are between a 'hare' and 'doe', 'bull' and 'mare', and 'stallion' and 'elephant cow'. 3 These are the six unequal couplings: The harder way (when the penis, because of its greater size, can enter the opening only with difficulty) is with the two women immediately beneath the man (1.
'stallion' with 'mare'), and with the woman farthest beneath him (3. The easier way (when the penis, because of its smaller size, works inside the opening, but cannot fill it fully) is with the two women immediately above him (4. 'hare' with 'mare'; 5 'bull' with 'elephant cow') and with the woman farthest above him (6.
4 In the largest coupling, a woman's itch is most satisfactorily relieved; she accommodates the large penis inside her by assuming a position such as the 'wide open' [2.6.7 ff.], stretching her vagina. But in the smallest coupling, even when she contracts her vagina by assuming a position such as the 'cup' [2.6.13 ff.], there is no relief for her. V will speak later about ways of changing the size of the sexual organ, in which the woman stretches hers by the use of her arms and shoulders [2.6.7], and the man uses devices to increase his [7.1-2].
But it is said: But if a lover has a small penis, no matter how long the man works, women, they say, do not grow very fond of him, because he does not relieve their itch. And the saying is right. 5 He might be wounded when she bites or scratches or slaps him.
6 The two opposite circumstances are, first, when he has average sexual energy (his enthusiasm is average, his virility average, and he can bear to be somewhat wounded) and, secondly, when he has fierce sexual energy (his enthusiasm is very great and he can bear, to the extreme, serious wounds). 10 A man experiences sensual pleasure when he ejaculates, but a woman does not have that kind of sensual pleasure, because she does not have semen. Why, then, does she make love with the man?
To answer this, he says the next passage. 11 There is a verse about this: Tiny worms, born of menstrual blood, some with mild powers, some average, some terrible, cause an itch in the abodes of erotic love, according to their strength. The itch is scratched continually when the penis goes on moving without interruption.* 12 Scratching the itch is just like scratching an ear with a twig.
Compare 382
The different feeling is a different sensual pleasure, caused by the scratching of the itch combined with kissing and so forth. She thinks, 'What sensual pleasure I feel!' But the scratching of the itch is not a true perception of sensual pleasure, and the difference is that this experience bears no fruit, because she has no seed. And so the two sexes are not alike in the matter of their form or their timing, and therefore there are not nine couplings with respect to endurance and climax.
13 Since the workings of someone's mind are not accessible to someone else's sense perceptions and cannot be recognized by an eyewitness, what man can know a woman's different feeling? The word 'and' indicates, 'a woman's ecstasy, too'. When a woman acts the part of a man and produces her own ecstasy by her own movements, how can he know what her ecstasy is in its very essence, since he cannot perceive this sensually?
And no one can ask, 'Does your sensual pleasure come from an ejaculation, like ours, or from something else?' Since the woman cannot sensually perceive the sensual pleasure of ejaculation, and the man cannot sensually perceive a different form of sensual pleasure, it is not possible for one to ask the other about this. Even if someone could speak of it, the other would have no experience through which to understand the perception. To answer this doubt, Auddalaki describes, in the next passage, a means by which one person can know another's sensual pleasure.
14 When a man has ejaculated he has accomplished what he set out to do and stops moving, even if she is still working quite hard at it. And if a woman experienced the sensual pleasure of ejaculation like a man, she would then loosen his penis from her and stop. But this does not happen.
When the man stops, she wants another man. For sometimes when a woman has made love with one man she may make love with other men who happen to be there. And so it is said: A fire is never sated by logs, nor the ocean by the rivers that flow into it; death cannot be sated by all the creatures in the world, nor a fair-eyed woman by men.
Therefore, since a woman does not stop of her own accord, she does not reach a sensual pleasure of ejaculation like a man's sensual pleasure just before ejaculation. 15 The man whose sexual energy lasts for a long time thrusts inside the woman for a long time before he reaches the sensual pleasure of ejaculation and stops. With him, women become affectionate, just as they become wet.* So the love of the women shows that they have achieved their sensual pleasure, and their hatred shows that they are unhappy because they have not achieved their sensual pleasure.
For even men whose sexual energy lasts for a long time achieve sensual pleasure and experience love if the woman plays the man's part and works for a long time before she stops. But if she stops suddenly, the men lose their passion for her, since they are unhappy because they have not achieved their sexual pleasure. The fact that women experience love for long-lasting men shows that, like men, they know the sensual pleasure of ejaculation.
Hub 383
16 Because of this ambiguity-'Has she just had her itch scratched or achieved her climax?'-the resentment that women have for quick men is no sign that women do or do not achieve the sensual pleasure of ejaculation. 17 He expresses this opinion by quoting a verse from the 'Song of Auddalaki'. 18 Both he and she experience the sensual pleasure of ejaculation, but hers takes place from the very beginning, from the moment when he penetrates her with his penis, and goes on continually, without any interruption.
For as the man moves inside her, she gradually gets wet; water flows from her as it flows from a broken pot. This is evident from eyewitnesses. And so she ejaculates from the very start, like a man.
But he has his climax only at the end, when he emits his semen. And so, since the timing of the two of them is different, there are not nine couplings with regard to endurance, but there are nine according to climax, because of the similarity in the sensual pleasure of ejaculation. For the physician Charaka says that 'satisfaction and keeping the semen in her womb are among the signs that a woman has just become pregnant', and by satisfaction he means climax.
That is, conception is not possible without the ejaculation of semen. Now, some people say, 'She emits a menstrual discharge, not semen. For it is said: When a man and women mingle their bodies together mutually and their hearts are heated by the flame of desire, the embryo is churned out of the mixture of semen and menstrual blood, like fire by the twirling of the two fire sticks.' But if the woman had no semen, how could she conceive?
For a woman can be impregnated by making love with another woman just as she can by making love with a man. As Sushruta says: 'When a woman and a woman make love together, and emit semen into one another, a child is born without bones.'* For blood is formed out of the basic liquid of the body and becomes, under certain circumstances, menstrual blood, while semen is formed out of the marrow of the bones. 19 Women love producing the climax even if it takes a long time, because the climax is the most important thing.
Women hate a quick man because he cannot take a long time to produce the climax. Indeed, women want a climax that takes a long time to produce, because their desire is eight times that of a man. Given these conditions, it is perfectly right to say that 'a fair-eyed woman cannot be sated by men', but this is true because men's desire is just one-eighth of women's, not because women do not experience the sensual pleasure of ejaculation.
20 These entirely different conditions of a woman would not be evident if she achieved this feeling constantly. 21 A top is a wooden toy that little boys spin with a long string. In the same way, although a woman's sensual pleasure in ejaculation, caused by the man's thrusts, remains the same at the beginning, middle, and end of love-making, at the beginning she experiences only a dull sexual energy and gentle sexual pleasure but gradually she achieves full sexual energy and the greatest sexual pleasure.
Cycle 384
But if her climax continues without interruption, why is there a wish to stop? Because the fluids are used up. When the erotic climax begins, the fluid, that is, the semen, falls from its own place and moves through its own channel.
Because it flows constantly from the very start, eventually it is used up, and then all passion is stilled and there is a desire to stop. 22 He makes this point by quoting a verse from the 'Song of Babhravya'. 24 Two people of different species, such as a man and a mare,* would have different kinds of sensual pleasure; and so he specifies the same species, the human species.
But even two people of the same species might have different goals, such as bathing or eating, and so he specifies a single goal, namely sex. 26 Men and women are created differently: the organ of one goes in, and of the other, out; one swallows and the other is swallowed. 28 The two cases, of a sexual couple (man and woman) and a grammatical sentence (with an active subject and passive locus) are not analogous at all.
For, in the sentence, 'Devadatta is using logs to cook rice in a pot', the rice is produced through the combined action of the various case relations such as nominative (Devadatta), instrumental (logs), locative (a pot), and so forth.* But the man and the woman are acting upon one another, since the woman, who is the passive locus, depends on the action of the man in achieving her object, namely pleasure in her own offspring, and the man, who is the active agent, is dependent upon the woman. And their sensual pleasures are separate and dissimilar because their timing and their natural forms are different, even though they are of the same species.
30 As it is said: A woman's sensual pleasure is twofold: the scratching of an itch and the pleasure of melting. The melting, too, is twofold: the flowing and the ejaculation of the seed. She gets wet just from the flowing, and her sensual pleasure of ejaculation comes from being churned.
But when a woman is carried away by her sexual energy, she ejaculates at the end, it is said, just like a man. The best case is when the man and woman achieve their sexual pleasure at the same time, because that is an equal coupling. But if it does not happen at the same time, and the man reaches his climax first, his banner is no longer at full mast, and the woman does not reach her climax.
Therefore, if the coupling is unequal rather than equal, the woman should be treated with kisses, embraces, and so forth, in such a way that she achieves her sexual pleasure first. When the woman reaches her climax first, the man, remaining inside her, puts on speed and reaches his own climax. 31 Otherwise, because of the dissimilarity between the sensual pleasure of scratching an itch and the sensual pleasure of ejaculation, how could there be nine forms of sex with regard to climax?
Flow 385
33 There are nine forms of each of the three categories, making twenty-seven possibilities for each man and the same number for each woman. If these mate in all possible combinations, the total comes to 729 (27 × 27). 34 There are some verses of Babhravya about this: Endurance is the most important factor of all, because, in time, even a 'hare' can touch deeply, everywhere, inside the vagina of an 'elephant cow'.
But a 'stallion' is said to make up for the endurance that a 'doe' needs, and therefore some say that size is what is absolutely more important. And others say that sexual energy is more important, since even a 'stallion', if he lacks sexual energy, cannot accomplish the goal; sexual energy makes up for length of endurance. But even a woman whose sexual energy is dull should not worry about this, for a man must find out the strengths and weaknesses of the sensuality of each woman.
A man who lacks sexual energy and size, or who has sexual energy but lacks endurance, or who lacks endurance and size, can succeed by using the one that is left. 36 He runs out of fluids first because the woman has eight times as much fluid as a man.* And so it is commonly said [see 14, Y]: 'A fair-eyed woman cannot be sated by men.' 37 She may be strongly stimulated externally, by kissing and so forth, and internally, by the work of the fingers.
The implication is that these women have quick sexual energy, and that, in the opposite case, the women have average or long-lasting sexual energy. This applies to men, too. 39 The people who know the science are those who know the Kamasutra.
43 When someone says, 'This one is that one', referring to some other man or woman who was always an object of desire in the past, the past love is transferred to some other man or woman. The idea is, 'The qualities, the causes of love, in the person I loved in the past are also here in this one.' And so they call this past love a transferred love. Thus V will say [at 6.1.17], 'resemblance to someone loved is a reason for taking a lover.' 44 Since this type of love is well known, there is no need to give signs by which it can be recognized.
It is, moreover, the type of love intended in the discussion of the various occasions in the lifestyle of the man-about-town. The most important fruit is the enjoyment of the pleasures of visible sense-objects. 45 When she inclines toward one of the four forms, arising from habit and so forth, he will work with that form, to achieve the love that comes from that form.
Ladder 386
If he uses that love in the wrong way, he will find a form of love he does not want, or no love at all.
Compare 387
Hub 388
part02-ch02fn
Kamasutra 1 'Some people' refers to scholars. The word 'sixty-four' applies to the whole text or to a part of the text, but in both cases it refers to the part about the sexual act.
Cycle 389
Argument
Kamasutra 1 'Some people' refers to scholars. The word 'sixty-four' applies to the whole text or to a part of the text, but in both cases it refers to the part about the sexual act. 3 These are the sixty-four fine arts, singing and so forth, which are a part of sex as a whole.
Or they may be the sixty-four arts of love described in one particular part of the text, about sex, for they are called 'the sixty-four arts that come from Babhravya of Panchala' [1.3.16]. A great sage from Panchala composed sixty-four hymns of the Rig Veda. And Babhravya of Panchala [1.1.10] spoke about embracing and so forth in the book about sex that he himself made.
The Rig Veda, which is divided into ten 'circles', is called 'the sixty-four'. In the case of the Kamasutra, too, in the part about sex, the number 'sixty-four' is connected with the ten circles of the Rig Veda, because the Kamasutra book about sex has ten sections, as the saying goes: They say there are ten parts: embracing, kissing, biting, scratching, moaning, slapping, sexual positions, a man's sexual strokes, oral sex, and the woman playing the man's part. 7 This applies more generally, to things like kissing, as well.
14 These four embraces are for a couple who have already become moist while making love. 18 When the woman is lying on her left side, the man on his right side, he places his left thigh between her two thighs, and his left arm under her right armpit; and she does the same to the man. And the opposite, if they lie on the opposite sides.
Flow 390
Ladder 391
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Hub 393
Cycle 394
Flow 395
Ladder 396
part02-ch03fn
Kamasutra 3 For, at the beginning, her passion is dull and her mind is indifferent, and she cannot bear much [20], and the technique should be suited to that condition. After the beginning, her passion grows greater and she has no regard for her body, and a different technique is suited to that condition.
Compare 397
Argument
Kamasutra 3 For, at the beginning, her passion is dull and her mind is indifferent, and she cannot bear much [20], and the technique should be suited to that condition. After the beginning, her passion grows greater and she has no regard for her body, and a different technique is suited to that condition. 10 She brushes him with her mouth, touching him everywhere as she moves about.
11 There are five ways of grasping the partner's lower lip with the cup formed by the two lips. When the partners are face to face, that is the 'equal grasping'. When one of them grasps the other by bending the cup of the lips sideways to make a circle, that is the 'sideways grasping'.
When one grasps the other by the chin and the head and turns the face around, so that they can grasp one another's lower lips, that is the 'turned-around grasping'. And in the fourth, unlike the first three, the lips are pressed hard together, which is why it is called the 'pressing'. The 'pressing' kiss takes two forms: When both partners press hard, it is called 'basic pressing'.
When the tip of the tongue is also used, it is called 'licking-and-pressing'. (This latter form has two other names: 'sucking' and 'lip-drinking'.) 12 So there are eight forms of lower-lip-kisses: three kisses for virgins and five grasping-kisses. 17 Whoever is first to scratch, and so forth, is the winner.
20 Now he tells how to kiss both lips at the same time.
21 Now he describes how to kiss the inside of the mouth, within the category of the 'bowl'. 23 These kisses are for parts of the body other than the lips and the inside of the mouth. Kisses may be applied moderately, neither with pressure nor too gently, where the thighs join the torso, on the armpits, and on the chest; with pressure on the cheeks, the base of the armpits and the base of the navel; with curved lips on the forehead, chin, and around the armpits; and with just a gentle touch on the forehead and the eyes.
24 Those same kisses take on other names according to the circumstances in which they are used. 29 The kiss is transferred to a child, sitting on one's own lap, or to a painted portrait or a statue made of clay, stone, wood, and so forth, in the image of the woman he wants. This is for two people who have not yet had an opportunity to touch one another, speak together, or meet.
Hub 398
Cycle 399
Flow 400
Ladder 401
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Hub 403
Cycle 404
part02-ch04fn
Kamasutra 2 If not all the time, then when should it be used? On their first time together and on the occasion of someone's return, when passion is high because of their frustrated longing; on the occasion of a departure, as a memento; when she relents and her passion is great because of her joy; when she is drunk, which inflates her passion.
Flow 405
Argument
Kamasutra 2 If not all the time, then when should it be used? On their first time together and on the occasion of someone's return, when passion is high because of their frustrated longing; on the occasion of a departure, as a memento; when she relents and her passion is great because of her joy; when she is drunk, which inflates her passion. The same applies to the man when he has just relented from his anger or is drunk.
3 When passion mounts, lovers may also bite one another in the spirit of erotic friction. When passion is weak, they may just grasp their partners with the teeth, without biting. People who are not fiercely excitable by nature should not bite.
7 For scratching, use the left hand, because, since the right hand is more generally used, the nails on that hand might have become broken. The two or three points form a shape like the teeth of a saw. If there are three points they break quickly.
The implication is that two people whose sexual energy is average or dull should not trim their nails like this. Two people of average sexual energy should have their nails slightly trimmed at the tips like the beak of a parrot, while two people of dull sexual energy should have their nails trimmed at the tips like half moons. Thus there are three nail-shapings.
10 They can make the shapes of half-moons and so forth. 12 The thumbnail strikes the other nails. 23 He may make scratches in the various forms of a bird, flower, water-pot, leaf, creeper, and so forth.
28 The seats of passion are beauty, youth, and good qualities. 31 There is no keener means in the world, not even making love.
Ladder 406
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Hub 408
Cycle 409
Flow 410
Ladder 411
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part02-ch05fn
Kamasutra 2 The teeth retain colours from chewing betel leaf and so forth. 5 It is not too bloody because there is no wound; it is made with the tip of just one front tooth.
Hub 413
Argument
Kamasutra 2 The teeth retain colours from chewing betel leaf and so forth. 5 It is not too bloody because there is no wound; it is made with the tip of just one front tooth. 9 This mark beautifies the left cheek just like an earring.
10 The upper teeth (like a white jewel) and the lower lip (like red coral) press on the spot again and again without making a wound, but leaving a mark. 11 One mark is made, and then another right next to it, until it becomes a garland. 25 The other five rivers are the Vipash, Shatadru, Iravati, Chandrabhaga, and Vitasta.
30 The women of the city are the daughters of Pataliputra. 31 Before a man enters a woman of Karnataka, he stimulates her with embraces and so forth, both externally and internally. Then her limbs relax and she very slowly emits a very little bit of fluid, but she does not faint with sensual pleasure, for she never becomes intoxicated.
But then, at the end, she is carried away by her sexual energy and ejaculates. And she spends her passion through just that one sexual act. 36 The list of the six external actions is: embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, slapping and moaning.
Unusual acts are twisted acts. 41 She laughs, thinking, 'This is a fitting punishment for that wicked man.' She is unnoticed both by the others and by him. 42 Pretending to wrinkle her face, she puckers up her mouth as if to give a kiss, but does not give it; pretending to rebuke the man, she gives a signal by raising her brows and rolling her eyes.
Cycle 414
Flow 415
Ladder 416
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Hub 418
Cycle 419
Flow 420
part02-ch06fn
Kamasutra 1 At the moment of passion, when the penis is erect, she positions herself so that his penis and her sexual organ can join together. 2 She contracts by squeezing her thighs together, to pucker up the mouth of her vagina.
Ladder 421
Argument
Kamasutra 1 At the moment of passion, when the penis is erect, she positions herself so that his penis and her sexual organ can join together. 2 She contracts by squeezing her thighs together, to pucker up the mouth of her vagina. 3 With no need either to contract or to extend, the back of her vagina remains flat.
4 The 'mare', too, stretches when she makes love with a 'stallion' in the coupling with a larger man, contracts when she makes love with a 'hare', and remains the same in an equal coupling, with a 'bull'. 5 In all three sexual positions-contracting, extending, or flat on her back-she receives him when his penis is not yet inside her. 6 In an equal coupling, the woman neither contracts nor expands to receive an artificial penis that resembles the penis itself, and even if it is larger than the penis, she can expand to receive it.
If he is larger than she is, there is no need for sex tools. 7 In an equal coupling, the general practice is learned from talk, not from texts. For people generally say that there is a difference between the way they do it in the country and in the city, two ways for the woman to position herself when she is flat on her back.
And so it is said: The country way: the woman places her thighs on the thighs of her seated lover; the city way: the two lotus feet of the woman stand on the thighs of the man. 9 When she is making love with the man's penis inside her, she should slide back with her hips; or when the man is making love with her he should slide back little by little, so that they do not press together too tightly.
For if he moves inside her too roughly, she can be injured, and the man's foreskin can be torn off, which physicians call 'ruptured foreskin.' 11 She puts her thighs around his sides, so that her shins closely embrace his thighs, and places her knees around her own sides, on the area below her armpits. And in this way, grasping her thighs with her upper arms and keeping them in place, she opens more widely than before. This, too, must allow a way for him to slide back.
12 A 'doe' can use the 'Junoesque' position not only with a 'bull', but also with a 'stallion'. Moreover, in the 'wide open' and 'yawning' positions, too, a 'doe' can receive a 'bull', and with those same two positions a 'mare', too, can receive a 'stallion'. 13 With the 'cup', an 'elephant cow' can receive a 'bull'.
14 An 'elephant cow' can even receive a 'hare' and, as can be inferred from the previous passage, a 'mare' can also receive a 'hare'. 16 They stretch out in such a way that he can penetrate her. 17 How does he penetrate her in this position?
It is so easy that there is nothing to worry about!* But Katyayana describes the 'cup' somewhat differently: The man's hips press on the thighs of the woman, whose breasts crush against him as he faces her, making a human triangle. This is what is traditionally called the 'cup'. And so he says: Because the thighs are held tightly, the vagina does not contract.
Compare 422
And so it should not be used on an 'elephant cow', in a coupling where the man is smaller, but in equal couplings, as in the common practice in which the thighs are positioned naturally. 18 In order to sleep, all women, 'does' and so forth, lie on their right side, and the man lies on his left side. But at the time of sexual pleasure, it is just the opposite: he lies down on his right side so that he can use his left hand to touch her hidden places.
19 He does this with either the 'cup lying on the side' or the 'cup supine'. 21 She grasps his penis with the 'cup' formed by the lips of her vagina. 23 These are the positions described by Suvarnanabha for an 'elephant cow'.
24 The woman, on her back, raises both thighs, pressed closely together. And the man, on his left knee, embraces her with his two thighs and moves inside her; her thighs are raised so that he does not slip out. 25 He places the woman's knees on his shoulders.
26 The man places her two feet on his chest, and, encircling her neck with the noose made of his arms, he moves inside her. Her two feet, with the legs bent above them, remain on his chest and do not slip down. 29 Placing her left leg on the man's shoulder, after just a moment she lowers her right leg and stretches it out; this is the first position.
Then, in alternation, she places her right leg on his shoulder and stretches out the left. 30 The crab moves with its front feet bent like that. 31 It is called the 'squeeze' because it squeezes her vagina.
33 The man enters her and, without pulling out, turns around his upper body, turning his back to her while making love. 37 The woman leans against a wall or a pillar, and her partner leans on her. 42 This is sex with two women who trust one another and one man.
On one bed, the man can make love simultaneously with a pair of women. For all the while he is quenching the passion of one woman by moving inside her, he awakens the passion of the other woman at the very same time, by kissing her and so forth. And then he slakes the passion of that woman and re-awakens the passion of the one whose passion he has just extinguished.
Hub 423
43 One man making love with many women who are fond of one another is like a bull in a herd of cows. 44 A man can take his pleasure with women in the water like an elephant with elephant cows. And just as one man can have sex with two women or many women, so a woman can have sex with two men or many men.
For 'sex in a cluster' also intends to indicate sex between one woman and a cluster of men, such as two men embraced by one woman playing the man's part. And in 'sex with a herd of bulls', one woman acts like a cow with a herd of men as bulls.
Cycle 424
Flow 425
Ladder 426
Compare 427
Hub 428
part02-ch07fn
Kamasutra 6 Whimpering is a nasal sound, rising above the throat and nose, sweetly echoing. Groaning is like the deep rumble of a cloud, coming out of the throat.
Cycle 429
Argument
Kamasutra 6 Whimpering is a nasal sound, rising above the throat and nose, sweetly echoing. Groaning is like the deep rumble of a cloud, coming out of the throat. Crying is well known, and should be heart-rending.
Panting is another name for 'sighing'. He will explain babbling, shrieking, and sobbing [15, 17, and 18]. These seven are indistinct sounds.
He strikes her between her breasts, because this is above the heart, one of a woman's three seats of passion (the others being the head and the sexual organ). The passion even of a long-lasting woman whose sexual energy is fierce is quelled when she is slapped in those places.
14 She protests if she does not find pleasure in being slapped with the back of the hand but wants a different kind of slapping. His fingers are slightly bent, in the shape of a cobra's hood. 15 When he strikes her with the 'outstretched hand', she babbles inside her mouth, with her throat closed, making an indistinct sound.
Then she sobs, with the root of the tongue and with an open throat. 16 When the sex ends, the fluids are used up and there is exhaustion. 19 For, 'Respond to an act with a counter-act' [2.4.32].
20 Passion nears its end when he senses, from his penis, that his climax is near. He beats her on her sides beneath the armpits. 21 When he strikes her with the flat palm of his hand, she begins to babble.
23 Sometimes, but not always, there is an exchange when they make love, out of the pull of passion or according to the practice of the place. Then the woman abandons her own ways and changes to what the man has a natural talent for, doing the slapping, while the man abandons his own way, of slapping the woman, and takes up her ways, moaning and screaming. But after a short time, they change back.
And in the absence of passion or this particular technique, they do it just as before, and there is no occasion to switch. 28 He embraced Chitrasena so tightly, at the start of their love-making, that she suffered greatly, because she was so delicate. And even when he realized her condition, and knew that she had to be handled delicately, he was so blind with passion that he did not take account of his own strength and destroyed her by using a 'wedge' on her chest.
Flow 430
29 Shatakarna's son Shatavahana, born in the territory of Kuntala, saw his queen, Malayavati, one day when she had not long recovered from an illness and did not have her full strength, but was dressing for the festival of Kama. Passion arose in him and he made love to her, but his mind was carried away by passion and by using an excessively powerful 'scissor' on her chest, he killed her. 30 Naradeva was the general of the Pandya king.
His hand had been deformed by a blow from a sword. When he saw Chitralekha, a dancing girl, dancing at the king's residence, his passion was aroused, and when he made love with her, blind with passion, he used the 'drill' clumsily because of his lame hand; he missed her cheek and instead hit her eye, blinding her in that eye. The 'tongs' is not mentioned here, because by its very nature it is not too dangerous.
35 As for the part of the body: the place between the breasts can be slapped with the back of the hand, the head slapped with the outstretched hand, and so forth. As for the region: slapping is for a woman from Malava, oral sex for a woman from Abhira, and so forth. And as for the time: when he is inside her, he can slap her with the back of his hand; when she is seated on his lap, he can slap her with his fist, and so forth.
Ladder 431
Compare 432
Hub 433
Cycle 434
Flow 435
Ladder 436
part02-ch08fn
Kamasutra 5 There is no third way. In the interval, he withdraws his penis, and then she begins from the very start in the man's part.
Compare 437
Argument
Kamasutra 5 There is no third way. In the interval, he withdraws his penis, and then she begins from the very start in the man's part. 6 Her breathing is hard because of the unaccustomed activity and her exhaustion.
She joins her face to his, and bends her head down, in shame, not in order to kiss or bite him. She uses the 'embrace of breasts' [2.2.25].
The acts he demonstrated before are acts that he executed with roughness and ferocity, the man's natural talent; she now does these acts against the current of her own natural talent. And so, in order to express the woman's natural talent, even though she is not embarrassed, nor exhausted, and does not wish to stop, she indicates that she is embarrassed and exhausted and wishes to stop.
'Playing the man's part' (purushayitva) takes two forms, external and internal. This passage explains the first kind, the behaviour of a woman acting like a man (purusha). But 'playing the man's part' also refers to a man's sexual strokes (purusha-upasarpanam), and a woman can do these, too.
When the man is the active one it is called 'a man's sexual strokes' and when a woman is the active one it is called 'playing the man's part'. 7 There are two kinds of sexual strokes of a man, external and internal. To describe the external strokes, he says the next passage.
9 He becomes hard because his passion is aroused. If her passion, too, is aroused, the action can succeed. But if not, then to arouse her passion, he touches the woman with his hand, on her armpits, thighs, breasts, and so forth.
10 Her thighs are tightly pressed together out of embarrassment; he caresses them to make her open them. 11 Her breasts are tightly pressed together by the corset made of her arms. 13 A loose woman is one whose boldness is full-blown and who does whatever she wants, indulging in sex without shame.
The meaning here is that she is the one who makes the advances. 15 Now he describes the internal sexual strokes of a man. When he is inside her making love, he observes how she moves in reaction to the external sexual strokes in order to determine how to stroke her with the internal ones.
Hub 438
16 When she feels his penis moving in a certain spot inside her vagina, the pleasure of that touch makes her eyes whirl around in a circle; he strokes her with his penis very hard on that very spot, and from that pressure she quickly achieves her sexual ecstasy. This remains secret because women do not make it known. There is some argument about this.
Some people say that, when the man is stroking inside her, whatever place the woman looks at, either specifically or vaguely, that is the place where he should press her. Others say that, if she looks at many places, he should press her in one place after another. Or, whatever place she looks at very hard is the place where he should press her very hard.
17 She takes him very deeply inside her by attaching her sexual organ to his extremely closely, and that is a sign that she has reached her climax or is very close. 18 The sign of a climax that has been ignited (but not quenched) is that, when the man has reached his climax, she is still active with her own vagina. 19 He notices how she is moving before he enters her, and realizes that if he himself reaches his climax first, then the emotional flow of her climax will be interrupted.
Women's vaginas are said to be of four kinds: The best part of a woman is like a lotus petal to touch inside, or like a small globe, or wrinkled, or rough as a cow's tongue. All but the first kind need to be agitated because the itch is so extensive. For when her vagina has become soft and wet, she reaches her climax quickly once he moves around inside her.
Thus it is said: The ring finger and the index finger, joined with the middle finger closely at the tip, form an artifice so like the tip of an elephant's trunk that people have given it that name. 22 He rotates his penis deep inside her vagina, as if he were churning. 23 He lowers her hips and thrusts from above into the top part of the inside of her vagina, with his penis like a dagger.
24 He thrusts from below into the lower part of her vagina, violently, because the itch is most extensive in the lower part of the vagina. 25 He penetrates with his penis right to the very root, continuing for as long as the penis is able to rise up and sink down. 30 This is the time of the actual state of ejaculation.
33 She uses the lips of the vagina as a tongs. 34 With his penis inside her vagina, she bends her knees to put her feet on the man's chest and whirls around like a potter's wheel, supporting her body with her hands. 35 To make it easier for her to do the 'spinning top', and to keep his penis from slipping out, the man raises his own pelvis upward.
Cycle 439
36 She swings forward and back, and from side to side. But if she twists around in a full circle, it is a variation of 'churning'. 37 She does this so that his penis does not slip out of her, when passion is not yet extinguished.
41 If she has her period, she may not conceive; or, on the other hand, if the man gets on top again and she does conceive, a little boy and little girl may be born with reversed natures.* If she has recently given birth, uterine blood may flow out. If she is a 'doe', a 'bull' or 'stallion' may split her apart. If she is pregnant, she may have a miscarriage.
And if she is very fat, it is not possible for her to make active sexual strokes.
Flow 440
Ladder 441
Compare 442
Hub 443
Cycle 444
part02-ch09fn
Kamasutra 9 She teases him, saying, 'You are so easy to excite, you get an erection just from being touched on your thighs!' 10 If he does not say, 'Excite me with your mouth', despite the clear sign of an erection caused by being touched where the thighs join the torso and on the penis, and when it is known that he can be excited by oral sex, she makes advances without being urged on. 16 She holds it with her hand to keep it from bending down, forms her lips into a ring, and pierces her mouth with the tip of it.
Flow 445
Argument
Kamasutra 9 She teases him, saying, 'You are so easy to excite, you get an erection just from being touched on your thighs!' 10 If he does not say, 'Excite me with your mouth', despite the clear sign of an erection caused by being touched where the thighs join the torso and on the penis, and when it is known that he can be excited by oral sex, she makes advances without being urged on. 16 She holds it with her hand to keep it from bending down, forms her lips into a ring, and pierces her mouth with the tip of it.
17 She makes her hand into a fist. 18 When he urges her to bite the sides, or to do something else, she closes her lips around the glans. Then she sucks it out and releases it again, using her lips like a tongs outside the foreskin.
19 When she is performing the 'outer tongs', he presses further inside her mouth. This is the 'inner tongs' because her mouth acts like a tongs on the glans without its sheath. 20 Once it is no longer covered by the foreskin, she grasps it as she would grasp his lower lip with her two lips.
27 Promiscuous women and so forth are varieties of courtesans. Oral sex is not a mistake on the grounds of being opposed by the moral code. It is, however, a mistake to have oral sex with one's wife.
But it might not be a mistake for someone according to the customs of a particular region, and therefore might not have to be avoided.
29 Even though they have never seen or heard of oral sex, they still imagine it among these women. When they do somehow make love with these women, in the throes of passion, they avoid the act of the mouth with them, that is, kissing them. 30 In making love or doing the act of the mouth with courtesans, they do not think about what is pure and not pure.
31 The city is Pataliputra. 32 They do everything: love-making, oral sex, and the act of the mouth. 36 Certain men-about-town, the ones who are practically women, take one another, in friendship, and give one another the sensual pleasure of ejaculation.
Ladder 446
They say, 'You do it for me now, and I will do it for you later.' Or both of them do it at the same time, by turning their bodies head to foot, losing all sense of time because of their passion. Thus there are two ways of doing it. Women, too, can do this.
As it is said: 'Certain women in the harem, unable to get any tools, trusting in one another, excite one another with their mouth on the vagina.' 38 At the same moment, each has a mouth on the sexual organ of the other.
45 Oral sex is secret, and people are especially fickle when passion is involved.
Compare 447
Hub 448
Cycle 449
Flow 450
Ladder 451
Compare 452
part02-ch10fn
and one man the leader, like Krishna with the cow-herd women.* 18 The man stimulates both his own passion and the woman's. 19 Their particular goal might be to gain something, or to reverse a loss, but they are not acting out of passion.
Hub 453
with the women in a circle
and one man the leader, like Krishna with the cow-herd women.* 18 The man stimulates both his own passion and the woman's. 19 Their particular goal might be to gain something, or to reverse a loss, but they are not acting out of passion. The woman may be attached to another man, and the man to another woman.
21 A woman can do this too. 22 A coarse servant is a 'non-male' who has the characteristics of both sexes. 24 This is similar to the kind of sex just described because it, too, involves sex with someone quite unlike the man.
27 He plays her false by going to the house of a co-wife, or sending betel and so forth to that woman, or making love with her; the woman who is fond of him cannot bear it if the man is unfaithful. 28 Sleeping on the floor means that she is not sleeping with him. 29 He does not reveal any emotional disturbance.
35 Their learning and conversations are about the three aims of human life. 36 These conversations are about the Kamasutra. 37 Wise men, who know the three aims of human life, rejoice in this triad because it is a means of protecting women.
The dregs of society delight in it because it explains the way things actually are for them; the courtesans de luxe, because that is how they make their living. People call the Kamasutra by this name because it gives them delight.* 38 Women love it because it brings joy to them, especially. It brings fortune, because all householders use it; success, because, like magic, it gives power over people; and luck in love, because it makes both a woman and a man lucky in love.
39 Second-hand women are subsumed under other men's wives.* He might have said 'courtesan' instead of 'courtesan de luxe', but he wanted to indicate that she is a woman skilled in the sixty-four arts of love.
Cycle 454
Flow 455
Ladder 456
Compare 457
Hub 458
Cycle 459
Flow 460
part03-ch01fn
Kamasutra 4 The two sides are those of the mother and the father. 7 The other friends, also dressed as fortune-tellers, say, 'They want to give him the rich, beautiful, and highly esteemed daughter of this general.
Ladder 461
Argument
Kamasutra 4 The two sides are those of the mother and the father. 7 The other friends, also dressed as fortune-tellers, say, 'They want to give him the rich, beautiful, and highly esteemed daughter of this general. And so we have been asked to consider the fit between the two horoscopes, tomorrow.' 8 Fate consists in the good and bad karma amassed in previous lives, especially as revealed by the planets and constellations.
11 A pimply girl is one marked with whiteheads, a condition which destroys wealth and kills her husband. A bull-like girl looks like a man and has a bad nature. When a girl starts menstruating, the blood breaks her maidenhead.
She should not be less than three years younger. For it is said: A man should woo and marry a recommended virgin who is four to eight years younger, or else she is too old. 12 He should avoid such names as Kamalu, Vimalu, Caru, and Taru.
14 The people of the girl's faction also do all this at the time of courtship. 17 They say, 'It is in the lap of the Lord of Creatures.' And, 'Let us carry out the tests with the help of our friends and relations.' 19 As it is said: In a wedding in the manner of the god Brahma, a man summons his well-adorned daughter and gives her away. In a wedding in the manner of the Lord of Creatures, a man says, 'May the two of you together fulfil your dharma?
In the manner of the Sages, he gives wealth and a cow and bull. But in the manner of the Gods, he gives her to a priest performing the ritual at the altar. 22 His in-laws are his father-in-law, brother-in-law, and so forth.
Compare 462
Hub 463
Cycle 464
Flow 465
Ladder 466
Compare 467
Hub 468
part03-ch02fn
Kamasutra 2 There are two kinds of maidens, those ready for sex and those not ready. The trust of the first sort is won by paying attention to the act of love-making, and of the second sort, by taking care to dispel her fear and embarrassment.
Cycle 469
Argument
Kamasutra 2 There are two kinds of maidens, those ready for sex and those not ready. The trust of the first sort is won by paying attention to the act of love-making, and of the second sort, by taking care to dispel her fear and embarrassment. 3 If he does not speak or move, she thinks, 'I have married a dumb peasant!' 8 Once he has embraced her in this way, he can stop immediately, before it begins to upset her.
28 Within the three nights, he does these things but does not break his vows. He penetrates her from the fourth day on, and gives her sexual pleasure without upsetting her. 29 He teaches her the sixty-four techniques.
31 If he rubs her the right way too much, this establishes the path for the future, too, and from this obstacle to his own wishes he fails to achieve his object. If, however, he rubs her the wrong way too much, from that moment all her passion cools, and how can he achieve his object? 35 She does not know the pleasures of love if he neglects her, thinking, 'She is too bashful', but he pollutes her with anxiety if he forces his advances upon her.
Then she hates all men, thinking, 'They are all just like him', or, because she does not experience the pleasures of love, she leaves him for some other man.
Flow 470
Ladder 471
Compare 472
Hub 473
Cycle 474
Flow 475
Ladder 476
part03-ch03fn
Kamasutra 1 A man of indifferent qualities does have qualities such as good looks and a good nature, but lacks a noble birth or money and therefore lacks social status. The neighbour who lives next to the woman's house does not get her, because of all the quarrels that arise about the boundaries between the two properties and because his money makes him arrogant.
Compare 477
Argument
Kamasutra 1 A man of indifferent qualities does have qualities such as good looks and a good nature, but lacks a noble birth or money and therefore lacks social status. The neighbour who lives next to the woman's house does not get her, because of all the quarrels that arise about the boundaries between the two properties and because his money makes him arrogant. 2 If she has fallen in love with him, she will marry him by herself in the love-match wedding that consists of nothing but desire.
3 In the South one can marry the daughter of one's maternal uncle. 4 A girl outside the family would be someone other than the daughter of the mother's brother, and not related to the man's parents at all. 7 The game of the middle finger consists of grabbing the middle finger when it is hidden by the other fingers; in the game of six pebbles, a person cups his hand and throws six small stones up into the air and catches them on the back of his hand.
8 In 'eyes shut tight', one person closes his eyes and the others hide; then he opens his eyes, and whomever he finds has to hide his eyes. 'The start' is a game played with dark fruits. In 'striking the wind', they stretch out their arms like wings and whirl around like a wheel.
In 'heaps of wheat', they hide a gold coin in one of many piles of rice; then they mix all the piles together and divide them again into portions; each person chooses one portion and looks for the coin in it, and if he does not find it he has to give that portion to someone else. In 'finger-tips', one person closes his eyes and the others tap him on the forehead and ask, 'Who just hit you?' Other games might be 'leap-frog', 'one-foot', and so forth.
17 He starts a conversation through the mouth of someone else who arranges the secret meeting. 19 He tells her stories connected with her, such as the story of Shakuntala, the king's wife. 20 The fine arts are the ones that begin with cutting leaves into shape.
He can see her when the moon is in the constellation of the Gemini, or of the Deer's Head, or of the Pleiades.* 21 He thinks, 'The daughter of the girl's nurse should know that I am different from other men, if she has already made love. Otherwise, how could she know the difference?' 27 She does this only when the man questions her. 32 These are the arts of love.
Hub 478
Cycle 479
Flow 480
Ladder 481
Compare 482
Hub 483
Cycle 484
part03-ch04fn
Kamasutra 1 These are methods for a man who has no helper. There are also some for a man with a helper.
Flow 485
Argument
Kamasutra 1 These are methods for a man who has no helper. There are also some for a man with a helper. These methods are of two sorts, public and intimate.
First he describes the public ones. 4 He shows her a couple of geese and so forth, to suggest his own intentions, the sexual act. 7 In the course of these local games, he confesses his feelings by such things as cutting shapes in leaves, just described.
8 He says, 'I do not know what has caused this agony in my mind.' And even if he does not explain it, he talks about it more and more, making it seem the most important thing. 9 He says, 'In my dream, I made love to a woman who looked just like you.' 14 He wants to climb her like a staircase, to touch her between the legs, on the thighs, on the flanks, and so forth, one after the other.
16 Now he describes the intimate methods. 17 He does this by touching her with his nails. 20 On a seat or a bed, he tells her with his facial expressions but not with words, because of his fear that she will reject him.
23 He says, 'I have such a headache; do rub it with your hand.' 29 Even a man who has inspired exceptional trust does not succeed, because virgins expect to be wooed many times over. 41 When she is very close to him, she is in the power of kama. 42 She goes along with it so that he does not turn away from her.
44 When the man begs her to arouse him by placing her hand on his own hidden place, then only with difficulty will she touch the man's hidden place. 45 She reveals neither her feelings nor the parts of her body. 46 She thinks, 'He will not abandon me.' She urges him to free her by marrying her with the love-match wedding and then by taking her maidenhead.
52 Their superficial enjoyments come from material possessions like houses. But they do not have the intimate trust, the inner pleasure that comes from sexual ecstasy.
Ladder 486
Compare 487
Hub 488
Cycle 489
Flow 490
Ladder 491
Compare 492
part03-ch05fn
Kamasutra 1 He lures the foster-sister who has already been with a man, in order to send her into the other woman's presence as his authorized envoy. 4 She says, 'Your parents are greedy and do not understand good qualities, for they throw out a man who does have good qualities and are trying to round up a rich man who has no good qualities.' 5 If the girl thinks, 'He is not right for me', the foster-sister tells her about women who chose by their own resolve, not according to their parents' wish.
Hub 493
Argument
Kamasutra 1 He lures the foster-sister who has already been with a man, in order to send her into the other woman's presence as his authorized envoy. 4 She says, 'Your parents are greedy and do not understand good qualities, for they throw out a man who does have good qualities and are trying to round up a rich man who has no good qualities.' 5 If the girl thinks, 'He is not right for me', the foster-sister tells her about women who chose by their own resolve, not according to their parents' wish.
Kaushika saw the celestial nymph Menaka, whom Indra had sent to him to pose an obstacle to the ascetic power he was generating through his yogic praxis; his passion was ignited and he desired her. She took his semen and right then and there gave birth to a maiden whom she abandoned in the wilderness; then she returned to the sky. The great sage Kanva saw the maiden in the midst of a flock of shakunta birds and in pity took her to his hermitage and brought her up, naming her, because of the circumstances, Shakuntala.
In time she grew to the prime of her youth, and when she saw King Dushyanta, who had come there on a hunt, by her own resolve she gave him her hand in marriage. Other virgins, too, became the wives of kings. 6 A greedy father may give a girl in marriage into an illustrious family.
25 The wedding in the manner of the Ghouls involves taking a girl who is sleeping or drunk. A pretext might be saying, 'I forgot my ring when I came here; let us go there.' This takes place when the moon is in the constellation of the Deer's Head. 26 Here he does not bring the fire and so forth, because there is no dharma.
27 The use of force distinguishes the wedding of the Ogres. 28 The Brahma wedding is better than the love-match wedding, which is better than the wedding of the Demons, the Demons better than the Ghouls, and the Ghouls better than the Ogres.
Cycle 494
Flow 495
Ladder 496
Compare 497
Hub 498
Cycle 499
Flow 500
part04-ch01fn
Kamasutra 4 He quotes Gonardiya out of respect, since he was the author of the book on this subject. 5 The older relatives are her father-in-law and so forth.
Ladder 501
Argument
Kamasutra 4 He quotes Gonardiya out of respect, since he was the author of the book on this subject. 5 The older relatives are her father-in-law and so forth. 6 She plants herbs such as coriander and ginger, and vegetables such as beets.
7 The open ground is to walk on. 13 His passion for her may cool if he does not see her with her body well dressed. 14 If he has spent wrongly,* he will be taken for a poor man.
He would be embarrassed if she told him in the company of other people. 19 She says, 'Do not do it again', but not too much, lest he be humiliated. 26 She does this in order to demonstrate her devotion to him.
31 The services are those that she does for her husband. 33 She uses the water and the froth for drinks for the women servants, the husks to plug holes, the uncooked kernels to feed the poultry, and the coals to make iron pots. 43 She makes her bed near her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's people, for the sake of her own purity.
44 The daily tasks including managing food and drink, and the special occasions would include celebrating the birth of a child. The tasks that the man has begun might be establishing a temple to the gods, or a park. 47 Her ordinary clothes would be those that she wears during his absence.
Compare 502
Hub 503
Cycle 504
Flow 505
Ladder 506
Compare 507
Hub 508
part04-ch02fn
Kamasutra 3 She establishes herself higher than the co-wife. 4 She has to make an effort, because she does not want to do this; to demonstrate her affection, she makes it known to the man by means of a female servant.
Cycle 509
Argument
Kamasutra 3 She establishes herself higher than the co-wife. 4 She has to make an effort, because she does not want to do this; to demonstrate her affection, she makes it known to the man by means of a female servant. 5 For she thinks, 'This mistake may make her unlucky in love.' 6 She reveals details that the man has not seen, to make affection grow between her and him.
7 This is how a woman with no children acts toward a woman who has children. 10 She feigns sympathy for the woman who is the object of the quarrel and covertly encourages her to keep the quarrel going. 22 She serves him more in bed, so that he will love her more than he loves the other women.
23 Since the man would not trust it if she told it herself, she lets someone else tell it. 24 The token is special because it is more than the other wives have. 34 The man who is well-endowed and brings enjoyments is different from the man who is poorly endowed and lacks the capacity for enjoyments.
But a woman who walks out again and again becomes a special kind of courtesan. 35 Even if he is well-endowed and brings enjoyments, if his mind is not compatible she will not find complete pleasure. And so this man and the other are different.
Thus V shows that, by this criterion, she will not go on to yet another man. 39 She leaves him of her own accord when it is his fault. 42 Her knowledge is greater than the man's.
43 There is an occasion for her quarrel if there have been frequent breaks between them, if he has an affair with a loose woman, if he stays away for two nights, or if he does not sleep with her when it is her turn. 44 In private, in bed with the man, she practises the arts beginning with 'embracing' and ending with 'a man's sexual strokes'. 45 The arts that can be revealed are the fine arts, such as cutting leaves into shapes.
Her skill is a means of dispelling her husband's lack of love for her. 50 Whatever way he wants to make love, even if she does not want to, she should do it that way, in order to bring him to satisfaction. 51 She does not say, 'You do not love me any more.' She does not show him contrariness by hiding any part of her body.
52 She thinks, 'By this device I will get him to incline to me.' 53 The woman who must be concealed may be another man's wife. 62 The queens are in the centre rooms. In quarters outside these rooms are the second-hand women; outside these, the courtesans; and further out, the dancing girls.
Flow 510
66 The work of making love should be their one concern. 67 He must not put up with their infidelities, or else, if these deceptions are tolerated, they will do it again. 70 The one who is shy, he pleases by confiding in her privately; the one concerned about her status among the co-wives, by honouring her in public; the one who is proud, by giving her gifts as tokens of his esteem.
71 Picnics are for the woman who likes that sort of thing; luxuries for the one who is frivolous and extravagant; honours to her family are for the one who is always thinking about doing something for her relatives; and pleasure in bed is for the one who loves to make love.
Ladder 511
Compare 512
Hub 513
Cycle 514
Flow 515
Ladder 516
part05-ch01fn
Kamasutra 1 Thus V reminds the reader of the reasons, apart from pleasure and children, that have been explained in the discussion of the types of women who can be lovers [1.5.4-31]. 15 He makes advances for no special reason other than pleasure.
Compare 517
Argument
Kamasutra 1 Thus V reminds the reader of the reasons, apart from pleasure and children, that have been explained in the discussion of the types of women who can be lovers [1.5.4-31]. 15 He makes advances for no special reason other than pleasure. 19 She thinks, 'My child is still suckling at my breast.' 20 An overripe woman is ashamed to be forced to show her body to strange men.
21 The death of someone she loved, for example, turns her away even if she has begun to want someone. 22 Because her husband is always near her, she does not see how to get away to make love. 24 She thinks, 'His mind is difficult to grasp', and because she does not understand him well, her mind and heart do not imagine him.
25 She thinks, 'Sex with him will not be a long-term prospect.' 26 She thinks, 'He will make me the laughing-stock of society.' 27 She thinks, 'He does what his friends tell him to do; he has nothing but scorn for me.' 28 She thinks, 'His advances are all hollow, without any true motive.' 30 She is of dull sexual energy, and fears that he is a 'stallion'. 31 A country girl or an unsophisticated girl would be shy of such a man.
34 She thinks, 'Because he is so low, one of my girlfriends or some other person will look down on me.' 37 She thinks, 'Something bad may happen either to his body or to his money, if he makes love to me.' 38 She notices a disease in her body, for example, or a bad smell. 42 There actually are a few women who have regard for religion and the violation of religion. 44 Love for her husband, regard for her children, the fact that she is past her prime or overwhelmed by unhappiness, and regard for religion [5.1.18-21, 42]-these are causes inherent in the woman, connected with her nobility, and he can counteract this tendency by making her passion for him grow.* 45 If she is unable to find an opportunity to get away, or thinks, 'I would not want anything unpleasant to happen to him', or if she sees her own shortcomings [5.1.22, 37, 38], he shows her how to manage it.
46 If she thinks, 'He is inscrutable', or, 'He is a man-about-town, accomplished in all the arts', or 'He has always treated me just as a friend', or 'My husband has employed him to test me' [5.1.24, 31, 32, 41]-these are causes inherent in him, exciting her respect. But when he becomes very intimate, her awe of him trickles away. 47 If she fears, 'His advances are just a tease'; or thinks, 'He does not know the right time and place', or, 'He is an object of contempt', or 'He does not understand', or 'He has grey hair' [5.1.28, 33-35, 40]-these are causes inherent in him, exciting her contempt.
His pride, and his demonstration of his knowledge of the texts and the arts, washes away the contempt. 48 If she thinks, 'He is propositioning me in an insulting way', or, 'His face cannot keep a secret', or, 'His affection is all for his friends' [5.1.23, 26, 27]-these are causes inherent in him, exciting her contempt. He prostrates himself when he is making advances in a place where they are entirely alone.
49 If she thinks, 'How glamorous he is', 'His sexual energy is too fierce', 'He is a "hare", of dull sexual energy', or 'If I am discovered, my own people will throw me out' [5.1.29, 30, 36, 39]-these are causes inherent in her, exciting her fear. 50 The impetuous man acts quickly, without thinking a lot about it; he just waits for a word from the woman. 52 She stands at the door, hoping to see men.
Supplanted for no cause, because she is not promiscuous or anything of that sort, she cannot bear that and seeks another man. Both a woman who hates her husband, even if he has good qualities, and a woman who is hated by her husband, are fickle. The woman who is unrestrained toward the things that should be restrained, by her very nature goes astray.
Hub 518
The woman who has no children sees no children coming from her husband and goes to other men. 53 The woman raised in the house of her relatives shatters her good behaviour as soon as she becomes independent. The woman whose children have died goes to other men because she thinks, 'Whatever child is born to my husband, that child dies', or simply because she has no children.
The wife of an actor, or of a dancer or mime artist, is usually a courtesan; a wife who has many young brothers-in-law is usually given some experience by them. 54 When he failed to get her, she married another man, but he can win her now, because of her former love for him. A woman who takes sides can be won by the man whose side she takes.
A woman whose husband travels a lot is broken down by celibacy; how could she not desire other men? The wife of a man who is jealous, without cause, is sooner or later carried off by voluptuaries. If a man does not clean his body, his wife turns away from him because he is so putrid, so foul.
'Too pure' is the name of a specific caste, whose women are generally courtesans. A procrastinator is a man who decides to accomplish some task but does not actually begin it at that time. A jeweller's wife is always going to the market, where she gets a bad reputation.
A villager's wife is easily won by the man-about-town. A man whose body smells bad makes her nervous. An old man is no longer capable of sex.
55 'A woman desires any attractive man she sees' [5.1.8], but she may become anxious if she cannot see a way of devising some means by which they can make love. When she sees the means, however, she is no longer anxious.
Cycle 519
Flow 520
Ladder 521
Compare 522
Hub 523
Cycle 524
part05-ch02fn
Kamasutra 3 Women who act rashly shatter their good character; if they speak freely with the man, what need is there for a messenger for them? But women of the opposite sort have often shattered their good character and converse with restraint.
Flow 525
Argument
Kamasutra 3 Women who act rashly shatter their good character; if they speak freely with the man, what need is there for a messenger for them? But women of the opposite sort have often shattered their good character and converse with restraint. Now, the pursuit of a woman who is acting rashly for the first time is forbidden, even in order 'to ward off fatal blows to the body' [5.1.3].
But knowing that a man cannot pursue a woman by himself without achieving intimacy, V describes the causes of intimacy. 5 He sees her only after he has sent a messenger. 20 He himself uses the woman's things and gets her to use his.
22 When the man gives her the perfume by the hand of another person, he marks its container with his teeth and nails; when he gives it himself, he gives it with signals. 24 He caresses her armpits and the places where her thighs join her torso, but not her sexual organ. 25 He should not pursue two women in the same house.
27 Even if she is very easy to get, he should not make love to a woman in a house where the woman's husband has been seen to make love to another woman. 28 A man who decides, 'I am not able to do it in this case', will not even think about a woman who is worried about her lover, well-guarded by men with weapons, afraid of her husband, or supervised by her mother-in-law.
Ladder 526
Compare 527
Hub 528
Cycle 529
Flow 530
Ladder 531
Compare 532
part05-ch03fn
Kamasutra 5 Her responses to his advances are hollow, without any meaning. 6 And so, when one lover breaks the intimacy, the other lover makes up again.
Hub 533
Argument
Kamasutra 5 Her responses to his advances are hollow, without any meaning. 6 And so, when one lover breaks the intimacy, the other lover makes up again. 8 And when she is scorned, she makes advances to him.
10 If she lets him, she is not a tease. 13 She is just pretending to be asleep. 22 If that servant is seducing her, the man must realize, 'She is staying with him.' 23 When the messenger is trying to win her, she says, 'That must not be.' And so the man must debate: 'Is she telling the true reasons for her resistance, or is this some sort of deception?' 24 Their signs indicate their feelings.
25 He does not worry, 'Will I win her, or not?' There are two kinds of women, candid and not candid. To show that this rule does not apply to the ones who are candid, he says the next verse. 27 She receives signals that are not candid, but she signals a candid answer.
28 Of the two types of women just mentioned, candid women 'can be had merely by making advances' [5.1.52].
Cycle 534
Flow 535
Ladder 536
Compare 537
Hub 538
Cycle 539
Flow 540
part05-ch04fn
Kamasutra 3 'A husband like that' is ugly and so forth. 7 But it is a flaw if he is a 'stallion'.
Ladder 541
Argument
Kamasutra 3 'A husband like that' is ugly and so forth. 7 But it is a flaw if he is a 'stallion'. 8 For a 'mare' or 'elephant cow', there is a no flaw if he is a 'bull' or a 'stallion'.
10 There are three kinds of sexual moves, at the beginning, middle, and end of love-making. 12 'Even though other women are in love with him, when he saw you …' 14 (1) Ahalya* was the wife of Gotama; the king of the gods fell in love with her and she desired him. (2) The fire-priest instructed a woman in the fire ritual.
Agni, the god of fire, so desired her that he took on a form and arose out of the fire altar. When she became pregnant, her father-in-law, fearing a stain on the family, abandoned her in the forest. She gave birth to a son, whom the general of the Shabaras raised as his own child.
That son, in his childhood, played among the herds of sheep and goats and wandered around with them. By drinking their milk he became very strong, so strong that, even though he was just a little child, he killed goats and sheep with his bare hands. And for that reason, the general gave him the appropriate name of Avimaraka ['Sheep-killer'].
When he reached the prime of his youth, one day an elephant attacked the daughter of a king who was sojourning in the forest, and he killed the elephant and saved her. After that she fell in love with him and of her own will gave him her hand in marriage. These stories are relevant to a discussion of the seduction of other men's wives.
15 The sixty-four techniques are those of Panchala, singing and so forth.* She says, 'He has such luck in love that he was desired even by a man.' Even if it did not happen it has become as if it had happened. 19 For she thinks, 'Through this device she will say something connected with the man.' 20 For she thinks, 'She will tell some secret.' 21 For she thinks, 'Perhaps she will tell a story about the man, in order to talk about fickleness.' 23 She gives her bangles or upper garments.
24 She remembers her, saying, 'Why did you not come today?' 26 The messenger has pursued the conversation by saying, 'Your face, even just hearing someone mention your name, makes him happy.' 36 Such women are not familiar with the man. 38 The cupped hands are intended to give rise to the impression, 'This man is intent on nothing but propitiating you in this way.' 44 But they should not meet in the house of someone such as a woman friend, because their arrival and departure are not secure, since she is not always at home.
54 She says, 'You have even called your wife by my name! It would be all right to address her in this way if she were beautiful.' She gives him something: such as betel, a chaplet, or areca nuts, to declare her passion. 55 The man makes advances to her, if he wants to make love with her.
Compare 542
58 She sends signals in order to indicate her own desires. She gets the wife angry, in order to show that she, too, is jealous, saying, 'This man is fickle and is attached to another woman. How is it that you do not get angry?' She marks the wife with the traces of nails and teeth to announce her own longing to make love.
The wife is the foolish messenger, because she does not understand the purpose of a messenger. 64 She inspires hatred by praising his good looks and so forth, as has been said: 'She inspires regret' [5.4.3]. And she describes his sexual charms, as has been said: 'She tells about the man's accomplishments, how well he suits her, his sexual moves' [5.4.10].
She reveals the enjoyments of sex, as has been said: 'She speaks of the man's sexual powers, his knowledge of the sixty-four arts, and his luck in love' [5.4.15]. She describes these not just in front of the woman herself, but in front of her friends, too. 65 She says, 'Listen, you are lucky in love, but this is an extraordinary thing' [5.4.12].
As has been said: 'She describes how he has made love secretly with some praiseworthy woman, which happened or did not happen in the past' [5.4.15]. She describes his constancy toward the woman.
Hub 543
Cycle 544
Flow 545
Ladder 546
Compare 547
Hub 548
part05-ch05fn
Kamasutra 13 The king sends her to a woman to whom he wishes to make love. 20 The man makes love to her with the sexual act that suits her.
Cycle 549
Argument
Kamasutra 13 The king sends her to a woman to whom he wishes to make love. 20 The man makes love to her with the sexual act that suits her. 24 The man may be frightened of the king's court.
26 He makes her into a servant girl because a woman who has been publicly ruined is a kind of courtesan. First he makes her into a common woman and then he introduces her into the harem gradually, not violently or right away, so that no one will think, 'He did this by a trick.' 27 This pair of methods is to be used on women who have not abandoned their families. They are used by the king's sons, but not by the king.
29 In Gurjurat there is a place named Kotta, whose king, named Abhira, went to another man's house in order to sleep with the wife of Vasumitra, the head warrior. There, a guard employed by his brother, who deserved the kingdom, killed him. Jayasena the king of Varanasi had gone into another man's house to make love with that man's wife.
33 But the real purpose is sex. 37 The six enemies are desire, anger, greed, pride, intoxication, and joy.
Flow 550
Ladder 551
Compare 552
Hub 553
Cycle 554
Flow 555
Ladder 556
part05-ch06fn
Kamasutra 2 By imagining a man, they experience a heightened emotion that gives extreme satisfaction. These things have a form just like the male sexual organ: the bulbs of arrowroot, plantain, and so forth; the roots of coconut palms, breadfruit, and so forth; and the fruits of the bottle-gourd, cucumber, and so forth.
Compare 557
Argument
Kamasutra 2 By imagining a man, they experience a heightened emotion that gives extreme satisfaction. These things have a form just like the male sexual organ: the bulbs of arrowroot, plantain, and so forth; the roots of coconut palms, breadfruit, and so forth; and the fruits of the bottle-gourd, cucumber, and so forth. 3 These statues have indistinct sexual characteristics because they do not have beards yet; they have the bodies of men but the appearance of women.
4 They strap on an artificial instrument made of wood to achieve their satisfaction. This is known as the technique for the harem. 5 Men who cannot get a woman relieve their desires in a thigh or hand, and so forth, moving it back and forth; or in a sheep, mare, and so forth; or simply by using their hand to churn their instrument with a 'lion's pounce', as it is said: Sitting with legs stretched out at right angles to one another, propping yourself up with your two hands planted on the ground between them, rub it between your arms; that is the way you do the 'lion's pounce'.
And if someone should object, 'It goes against religion to shed your semen in the wrong places', you reply, 'What about wet-dreams? The rule on expiation and restoration for that applies to this case.' 9 An example of a false representation would be saying that the harem is easy to enter when it is not. This might corrupt what has not been corrupted and put people in danger.
13 He says, 'Through such and such a connection, you are my brother or my sister's husband!' He becomes friendly with them, so that they will be slack in guarding against him. 14 He fakes the sorrow of failing to be with the servant girl. 19 He leaves a ring with his name on it, marked by the traces of his nails and teeth.
24 Some people make the body disappear, but not the shadow. But only those who make both disappear are not seen. 26 In these ways, he can enter everywhere and abduct anyone.
28 They know one another's secrets and think, 'What one of us wants to do, all of us should arrange to do together.' They make the others defect so that they too will be in the same situation. Their single purpose is shattering their fidelity. 38 They conceal a young man who is capable of the sexual act.
44 Corrupt people cause ruin.
Hub 558
Cycle 559
Flow 560
Ladder 561
Compare 562
Hub 563
Cycle 564
part06-ch01fn
Kamasutra 4 Men become attached to a woman who lets them think, 'She is in love with me', but not to women who are driven by money. 9 Policemen and officers of the courts ward off her losses and get money for her.
Flow 565
Argument
Kamasutra 4 Men become attached to a woman who lets them think, 'She is in love with me', but not to women who are driven by money. 9 Policemen and officers of the courts ward off her losses and get money for her. Fortune-tellers bring men to her and urge them on by saying, 'If you make love with this woman, your fortunes will flourish.' Bold men and heroes ward off her losses and get money for her.
Men who know the same things love her and get money for her. Men who have a grasp of the arts learn the arts from the woman and publicize them, which brings lovers to her. The panders and the others bring in money through their own work and bring lovers to her through their free access to the houses of other men.
10 These lovers are for money and not for love, but their money can be used for sexual pleasure and fame. An independent man is not dependent on his elders. A man who has just come of age is not too old.
When she wants something from a man whose source of income is not in public view, because it comes from some other region, even when he gives her money, it is a useless gift. An official can give her money derived from whatever money he officiates over. A man whose wealth comes easily, either through an inheritance or by finding some treasure or through a favour from the king, gives it away easily, too.
A jealous rival gives her a lot of money in competition with another lover. A tax-collector or usurer has a steady income. A man who believes he is lucky in love, although he is unlucky in love, does not want people to think that he is unlucky in love, and so he gives the woman a lot of money in the course of getting her away from another man.
An impotent man, a non-man, gives her a lot of money in order to proclaim his virility. A man who wants people to think he is a real man gives her a lot of money when she asks for it. When two men equal in family, knowledge, wealth, or age are rivals, each thinks, 'That man who is my equal gave a lot to that courtesan; I will give her more.' Such a lover keeps spending more, like a mare who always wants to be in front.
If a man has the ear of a king or minister of state, even if he himself does not give her anything, he can get the king or minister to give her something, by saying, 'This is the woman I love.' A fatalist thinks, 'My fortune is drying up because my good luck is drying up, not because it is spent on pleasures', and so he gives her a lot of money. A man who transgresses his gurus' words gives her a lot even though he is doing wrong.
A rich only son is never restrained by his parents even if he gives her a lot, because they do not want him to go anywhere else. A man whose sexual desire is concealed thinks, 'People must not find out', but since he is tormented by desire, he gives her a lot. A hero makes friends and makes money.
Ladder 566
A doctor, even if he does not give the courtesan money, gives, in fact, by healing her when she is ill. 12 The man's good qualities are described here in keeping with the statement above [at 1.5.28]: 'We will explain the good qualities and lack of good qualities in both [kinds of lovers] in the discussion of courtesans.' V calls him 'the man' here, and not 'the lover', to apply more generally; he also gives him other names, such as 'suitor' in his relationship to a virgin, 'successful suitor' in his relationship to a second-hand woman, 'paramour' in his relationship to the wife of another man, and 'lover' in his relationship to a courtesan.
The man is learned, in logic and so forth. He knows all customs, even the customs of heretics. He composes poems in Sanskrit and other languages.
He is skilled in crafts such as sketching. He does services for those who are mature in knowledge or in years. It is said: 'The qualities of a man of endurance are heroism, indignation, speed, and cleverness.' A Brahmin who does not drink makes a lot of profits.
A 'bull' is sexually potent. The man flirts by glossing over the flaws in the condition of the women's bodies. 13 Here, too, V says 'the woman', not 'the courtesan'.
Auspicious marks indicate that she will have the good fortune to be loved. A woman inclined to love and sex is fond of both external foreplay and the sexual act.
A woman true to one type has one consistent form, not a deceptive one. 15 The inverse of the common qualities are such faults as birth from a bad family and so forth, ugliness and so forth, stupidity and so forth.* And if he has these, a lover is not a lover. 16 A man wasting away is suffering from tuberculosis ('the royal sickness').
Worms in the faeces is a condition generally called 'faeces-flies', in which worms appear in the opening from which faeces are excreted; when semen infected with the disease through contact with the faeces enters a woman, she gets a fever. Crow's-mouth is a foul-smelling mouth; or else it means that, just as a crow puts things both pure and impure into his mouth, so this man desires women without reflecting about it, and becomes ineligible for sex. A man who loves his wife does not give the courtesan money because he never becomes attached to anyone else.
Compare 567
A man who can be bought even by people he hates is so greedy that he surely will not give her money. 17 These are the reasons: passion, which sometimes arises naturally, by itself; fear of death, like the fear that afflicted Rambha because of Ravana, who said to her, 'If you do not satisfy my desire, I will kill you'; gain, getting land and so forth; rivalry, like that between the two women, Devadatta and Anangasena, who fought over Muladeva; curiosity, which arises when one hears that a man is debauched and wonders, 'Is he, really?'; exhaustion, for sex revivifies; religion, which is served by sex with a learned Brahmin who has nothing; compassion, taking pity on someone who says, 'I will die if you will not make love with me'; the words of a friend, who says, 'Someone to whom I owe a favour has arrived; do, please, sleep with him tonight'; diffidence toward someone who has the status of an elder; allaying passion, for an excessive volume of semen* is dispelled by sex with any man.
18 The author here is saying: This is a matter either of practical calculation or of abstract theory. Healing, friendship, dispelling sorrow, and cultivating the arts are matters of practical calculation; while gain, warding off losses, and love are theoretical, for everything can be subsumed under them. The category of gain includes rivalry, curiosity, partiality, exhaustion, religion, fame, the words of a friend, and allaying passion.
The category of warding off losses includes fear, hostility, and compassion. All the rest [passion, diffidence, resemblance to someone loved, a shared caste, living in a house together, continuity, and the future] are subsumed under love. 21 And so there is a common saying: He scorns the woman easy to get, and desires the woman hard to get.
But when he has propositioned her over and over, she may accept him. 25 The art might be singing. 28 The conversation could be about poetry or about art.
Giving him liquor, betel, and so forth are courtesies. 33 The pander and the others drop hints by saying, 'Why don't you sleep here?' These courtesies make direct suggestions about nothing but sex.
Hub 568
Cycle 569
Flow 570
Ladder 571
Compare 572
part06-ch02fn
Kamasutra 1 As it was said earlier [at 4.1.48], 'An only wife … even a courtesan'. But if she is not the only one, then V tells her how to give the man she loves what he wants, for when he is making love with her, she loves him.
Hub 573
Argument
Kamasutra 1 As it was said earlier [at 4.1.48], 'An only wife … even a courtesan'. But if she is not the only one, then V tells her how to give the man she loves what he wants, for when he is making love with her, she loves him. 3 She implies that she must do what her mother says.
6 She tries to take her daughter away to another lover. 7 She exhibits these feelings toward the man she goes to. 9 It is unique because it is artificial, a disease such as headache or stomach ache.
10 When she wants to make love with another lover, she uses her disease as her excuse. 11 The woman, who is not her mother, collects these things as if the courtesan wanted to say, 'Even with this I will find a kind of happiness.' 13 When she becomes aware of the sixty-four erotic techniques of Babhravya of Panchala, she says, 'Teach me how to do it!' 14 She uses them afterwards again and again on this very lover, so that he understands, 'She has made such an effort just for my pleasure!' 16 When they are alone, she says, 'My desires were to make love and laugh with you all night long.' 17 She does not let him see or touch anything flawed in her armpits, thighs, or sexual organ, for fear that it might dampen his ardour.
18 To proclaim her affection, she sleeps facing him. 21 She also watches him when he is on the main street, even when she is on the rooftop porch of her house. When he sees her, she thinks, 'My lover is looking', and she becomes shy, and that is what destroys her cunning.
Who else knows how to speak like that?' Responding to the speech of a man in whom affection has not yet arisen would be, on the other hand, an embarrassment. 29 In order to express her jealousy and anger, she does not respond to a story about another wife. 32 When she is depressed because she has heard something unpleasant about the man and he asks her the cause of her depression, she says, 'I have had this illness for a long time; it is an old enemy that afflicts me.' 33 Or else he will think, 'She is attached to another man.' 36 As long as he thinks, 'She has been unfaithful', for that entire period, in order to prove him wrong, she demonstrates the torment of her body by acting exhausted, anointing her limbs with oil, fasting, and so forth.
40 He gets back his physical strength after an illness. She says, 'Formerly, I asked the Goddess to fulfil my hopes for getting money and so forth, and that is why these wishes have been fulfilled; now I must make the offering to her.' 43 When he goes to a friend's house, or to see a deity, then she thinks, 'I cannot be separated from him for even a moment', and she herself follows him. 44 She says, 'I am in my fertile period, and so you should not sleep anywhere else!' and 'If my death comes before his, it would be a blessing.' 46 She takes the same vow.
Cycle 574
47 If there is a quarrel with someone about a fine point of meaning in some matter, she says, 'If anyone can do it, he is the one.' 50 She says, 'Give me your leftover garlands and so forth. And when you are invited somewhere and do not take me with you, always send me what you do not eat.' 56 When he says, 'You are always using love-sorcery to put me in your power, so that I will be totally submissive to you', she replies, 'No!
I would never do anything like that!' 58 Her mother forces her to go to another lover. 59 She convinces him that it is all her mother's fault alone, not hers. Her position is that the lives of courtesans are despicable, because their mothers, thirsting for money, make them abandon a man they are fond of and join them with some other man.
61 In the end, when her mother tells her even what to eat, she does not disobey. 64 She envies them, thinking, 'They are being rewarded for their merit, for my lover sees them; I must have no merit, for he does not see me.' 65 If she sees an auspicious dream that is true, she tells her people about it in the morning. If she has a false dream, she tells them she did not have a dream.
If her lover is in another region and has some wish that is not fulfilled, she knows of this by these various dreams. 66 If she thinks, 'Something unwished-for has happened to him', she summons the Brahmins. 70 She says, 'I am fulfilling the promise I made when I said, "If my beloved comes back to me, I will give you a ball of rice."' 72 She says, 'When you have gone to heaven, it will not be possible for me to live.'
Flow 575
Ladder 576
Compare 577
Hub 578
Cycle 579
Flow 580
part06-ch03fn
Kamasutra 3 She will get double what would come to her through natural means and discussion, and without deductions. 4 He gives her the money but she does not actually get the things.
Ladder 581
Argument
Kamasutra 3 She will get double what would come to her through natural means and discussion, and without deductions. 4 He gives her the money but she does not actually get the things. 7 She says this so that he thinks, 'She was robbed coming to my side', and gives her other jewellery.
8 She reports to him, 'Through carelessness, a fire broke out and burnt up my property.' She herself must not set a fire, however, because then through her fault many lives might be lost. Or thieves, or people who pretend to be thieves, dig an opening in a wall to rob the house. She says, 'Through my carelessness, or my mother's, things were lost in the house.' 9 Someone else had hidden jewellery there, for some reason, and now has asked to have it back; and the man had left his own jewellery there.
But now that he learns that it has been destroyed by fire, of course he gives her money, and does not ask for his own jewellery. In front of the man, spies brought in by servants sent by the man say, 'To come to you, she spent these funds on rum, betel, and so forth.' 12 She says, 'These friends brought valuable presents to me at my festival.' She had mentioned them to him before the friends' party had taken place.
17 The pregnant woman is her girlfriend. The courtesan says to the man, 'Because of the death of a son (or whatever) of a friend of yours, I am so unhappy. Seeing this, you should cheer me up.' With this sort of pretext she manages the home improvements and so forth.
19 In the presence of the lover, the woman shows the jewellery and so forth to a merchant with whom she has a prior understanding, so that the man thinks, 'She must have nothing left at all, if she is trying to sell the things she uses all the time', and so he gives her money. 20 Here V cites the teaching of Dattaka-'When there is a pooling of similar household goods, she takes the special ones'-and adds a phrase to clarify it: 'with rival courtesans de luxe.' Because the goods are similar, they accidentally get exchanged, and so that this should not happen again, in the presence of her lover she takes from the hand of the merchant, from time to time, some goods that are superior in both size and quality, so that the lover will give her money to pay for it.
Generally, courtesans of the same class borrow one another's household goods as the need arises. 21 She praises them in his presence, so that he says, 'The kindness that I did has not come to naught here', and he gives her money again. 23 She does this so that he too becomes ashamed, and gives her money.
24 She does this so that he hears about this, says, 'She loves me', and gives her money. 26 Thinking, 'He will not come back to this house', she gets a child to request, 'Give this to me'. Or else it means that she abandons her shame, like a child, and begs him.
Compare 582
29 He makes friends with those in the faction opposed to the woman. 31 He does not give her what he has been giving her every day. 33 He does not communicate with them with words, for he thinks, 'She must not hear this.' 34 He sleeps somewhere other than inside the woman's house.
36 She does this before he realizes, 'My passion for her is cooling'. 37 She had taken the man's money from this creditor, who had had it as a debt; and by a previous agreement, the creditor took it back by overpowering her by force. 38 If the man argues, 'But this is mine; why are you taking it?' the creditor sues him in court.
And if he does not argue, the goal is achieved. 39 She deceives him, because he is still attached to her.
40 If someone should remark, 'How can she just throw him out, when he has given her sexual pleasure and profit?' V replies, 'She gets support from another man', and this man gives her both pleasure and profit. 42 She crosses her two arms, places her hands on her own shoulders, and puts her two arms together to make a needle. When he tries to make love, with some difficulty, and she sees that he is exhausted, she urges him to go on, but does not help him out by offering to play the part of the man [2.8.1].
There actually is a kind of sexual donkey who makes love in the daytime even though it is forbidden. When she realizes, from his gestures and signals, that he wants to make love, she goes out. 44 It was Dattaka who set forth the rules for the relationship between the lover and the courtesan, up to this point; I did not invent it.
For it was he who decided, through the commission of the courtesans, to make this condensation. But it was Babhravya who set forth in a useful form what I am going to tell now, about getting back together with an ex-lover and so forth.
Hub 583
Cycle 584
Flow 585
Ladder 586
Compare 587
Hub 588
part06-ch04fn
Kamasutra 15 'He was looking for some special kind of sex, which he did not see in that woman, because she lacked sophistication. He wants to come back from her to me, because he has seen that special something in me.' 27 'He is keeping him away from me now, because of his friendship with him.' 28 'When I had broken with him, he went back to his own wife.
Cycle 589
Argument
Kamasutra 15 'He was looking for some special kind of sex, which he did not see in that woman, because she lacked sophistication. He wants to come back from her to me, because he has seen that special something in me.' 27 'He is keeping him away from me now, because of his friendship with him.' 28 'When I had broken with him, he went back to his own wife. And I will treat her with contempt because of this, and by getting back together with him I will get him to leave her, and so I will get revenge for this insult.' 29 'The friend of my ex-lover has power and possessions, and he is in love with my present or former co-wife, who wishes to harm me.
By means of the ex-lover, I will get that friend to break away, so that she will have no profit and will have to do favours for me.' 30 'He left me to go elsewhere, and he also left her to go elsewhere.' 34 They mention what he did for her, by giving money or warding off losses, to show that she is grateful. 38 'Breaking another woman away from the lover' refers to the situations in which 'his wife has treated me with contempt' [28] or 'his friend is in love with my co-wife, who hates me.' [29].
'Hurting the lover who stays with another woman' refers to the situation in which 'he will stop her income' [25]. 'Breaking the ex-lover away from another woman' states a reason for staying with the ex-lover. 40 The man who is not attached to her is an ex-lover who is still very much in love with her; she welcomes him because his feelings for her are known.
The man who is attached to her is not in love with her, and so she treats him with contempt. Another man, who is very clever, gives her a great deal of money, saying, 'Do not make a connection with another man.' 41 Although he uses the more general term, 'a woman', he is referring only to a courtesan in this section. She does not make love with the man right then, or else there might be a break from her present, attached, profitable lover.
And the previously intimate ex-lover is willing to wait for another time, because he loves her so much and has hope. 42 She enchants just the man who is attached to her because she loves him for having stayed; she does not make any connection with the other man.
Flow 590
Ladder 591
Compare 592
Hub 593
Cycle 594
Flow 595
Ladder 596
part06-ch05fn
Kamasutra 8 The woman chooses on the basis of her own love and the man's love for her. 13 Because he is generous, he does not consider the past and say, 'I already gave money to her, and I will not give it again.' 16 A false move is an infidelity committed by the woman.
Compare 597
Argument
Kamasutra 8 The woman chooses on the basis of her own love and the man's love for her. 13 Because he is generous, he does not consider the past and say, 'I already gave money to her, and I will not give it again.' 16 A false move is an infidelity committed by the woman. 17 Because they are dignified, they do not disregard a false move.
Because they are straightforward, they accept unjust slander, such as, 'That woman is always making false moves.' Because they are thoughtless, they have no regard for the pains a woman takes on their behalf. 18 He does not accept unjust slander. 26 A heavy gain outweighs a light loss, and a heavy loss outweighs a light gain.
28 Mediation is given through the hand of another person, since a Brahmin cannot receive a gift from a courtesan. 29 Those who live on their beauty do not know the arts. 31 The middle and lowest are the women who live on their beauty and the women who carry water pots.
Hub 598
Cycle 599
Flow 600
Ladder 601
Compare 602
Hub 603
Cycle 604
part06-ch06fn
Kamasutra 12 The gains have been discussed in the passage about the three aims of human life [1.1.2]. 15 Because of his own lack of funds, the man who is attached to a woman gives her money that he took from another man and should give back to him, so that people say, 'She is living with a robber.' 20 There are twenty-four combinations of consequences: each of the six-gain, loss, religious merit, violation of religion, pleasure, and hatred-coupled with four of the others.
Flow 605
Argument
Kamasutra 12 The gains have been discussed in the passage about the three aims of human life [1.1.2]. 15 Because of his own lack of funds, the man who is attached to a woman gives her money that he took from another man and should give back to him, so that people say, 'She is living with a robber.' 20 There are twenty-four combinations of consequences: each of the six-gain, loss, religious merit, violation of religion, pleasure, and hatred-coupled with four of the others.
26 He hesitates to say, 'There will be no pleasure', because he is tormented by passion. But he is not even attractive to her. 29 He wants to die because he has reached the final stage of desire.
40 She does not go to the man who is attached to her. 43 Two-sided results for religious merit occur when [6.6.29] she goes to the Brahmin who is going to die, for religious merit comes both from the fact that she is serving a Brahmin and that he is otherwise going to die of his love for her. Two-sided results for the violation of religion occur when [29] she goes to the man under a vow of chastity, both because he breaks his vow and because he is unwilling.
Two-sided doubts about religious merit arise when [38] she goes to another man who has no money, and she worries, 'Will religious merit be served or not?' and [22] the man who is attached to her can give her nothing, because she has squeezed all the money out of him, and she worries, 'Will religious merit come from this or not?' Two-sided doubts about the violation of religion arise when [29] she goes to another man from a religious order and makes him break his vow, and she wonders, 'Will religion be violated or not?' and [29] the man attached to her, who has taken a vow, intends to give her a lot of money, and she wonders, 'Will religion be violated or not?' Two-sided results for pleasure occur when [23] she goes to another attractive man and also [32-4] satisfies her desire with the attractive man who is attached to her. Two-sided results for hatred occur when [26] her passion cools both from going to another unattractive man and from going to the unattractive man attached to her.
Two-sided doubts about pleasure arise when [30] she goes to another man, without knowing if he has good qualities or not, and she wonders, 'Will pleasure result or not?' and [33] the man attached to her is unrequited and she wonders, 'Will pleasure result or not?' Two-sided doubts about hatred arise when [26] she goes to another man and wonders, 'Will my passion toward this man cool or not, since he hesitates to talk about dispelling passion?' and [26] 'Will my passion cool or not toward the man attached to me, to whom I feel the same way?' 53 Of the two kinds of women, the earlier parts of this text-about virgins, sex, wives, and other men's wives-are about women who care most of all about passion.
Ladder 606
Compare 607
Hub 608
Cycle 609
Flow 610
Ladder 611
Compare 612
part07-ch01fn
Kamasutra 4 Spread this ointment on your body. 6 Use the leaves of the blue lotus and the roots of all the others.
Hub 613
Argument
Kamasutra 4 Spread this ointment on your body. 6 Use the leaves of the blue lotus and the roots of all the others. 10 Cover it with leaves of pure gold.
11 Have them gold-plated and hold them in your hand. 12 As the common saying goes: 'For what is hard to get becomes precious and sought after.' And as the poet says: 'There are two kinds of marriages to a courtesan, one brought about by the gods and the other by human effort. The divine variety is caused by Kama's bow, and the other kind by the lover.' 14 She wants the men to think, 'She is so much in love with us that, even though she is well-guarded, she will come to us without letting her mother know.' 18 If her own daughter has been married through a wedding in the manner of the gods, she gets him to take her virginity through one of the means described above [3.5.15, 25-6].
The distinction made here is between the man who takes her hand in marriage and then takes her virginity [7.1.18] and the man who gives money as described above [7.1.16] and then takes her virginity. 19 When she has secretly joined her own daughter with an attractive man who has taken her virginity, she says, 'I did not give permission for this.' 20 They take her virginity by using a finger. 22 She loses the money she would get from another man who is her present lover.
23 These women are dancers and so forth. 24 The musical instrument accompanies dancing, singing, and so forth. 25 Do this in such a way that the woman you want does not realize, 'A man with something spread on his penis is making love to me.' 26 Sprinkle the powder made of these materials on the head of women and on the two feet of men.
This 'peacock' is not the bird called the peacock but a kind of pheasant. 29 This is a way to amaze someone when the occasion arises. 30 Use a monkey with a red face.
33 Use the flowers of the panic-seed plant. 34 The shank-bone is a camel's. You break it into pieces the size of grains of rice, dip it thirty-seven times, and then burn it.
Mix it with equal parts of antimony. It affects vision by dispelling darkness and so forth. 36 Boil the first three ingredients in cow's-milk.
When it cools, add the sugar and drink it. 43 A young man who eats this will have an enormous capacity for sex. 49 The Veda meant here is the Atharva Veda.
Cycle 614
The qualified people are those who are adept at the spells and can be trusted.
Flow 615
Ladder 616
Compare 617
Hub 618
Cycle 619
Flow 620
part07-ch02fn
Kamasutra 1 If he cannot give her a sexual climax because he has no passion left, he resorts to contrivances. 2 Even if a man of dull sexual energy begins to make love because his penis is hard, nevertheless from the start he massages her between the legs with his hand in the 'elephant trunk' technique [2.8.19].
Ladder 621
Argument
Kamasutra 1 If he cannot give her a sexual climax because he has no passion left, he resorts to contrivances. 2 Even if a man of dull sexual energy begins to make love because his penis is hard, nevertheless from the start he massages her between the legs with his hand in the 'elephant trunk' technique [2.8.19]. And he enters a woman of fierce sexual energy only when she has become wet after he has massaged her with his hand, because this inspires passion for as long a time as the woman desires.
3 A man whose passion has arisen but who does not start to make love, because his penis is not hard, may kindle his passion with oral sex, which gives rise to the delight of ejaculation. For the penis of an old man or a fat man stands up only with difficulty. 6 These tools are cool to the touch at the time of penetration, but during the sexual act they have the effect of sexual violence.
The ones made of wood are just the opposite. 7 A certain woman may be fond of one particular thing, and so it is good to use ones made of wood, too. 8 It should be as wide as the erect penis, hollowed out inside, and fastened securely on the erect penis, like a second surface.
9 Two bracelets can be joined in a special way in three or four places. 11 Wrap around a string of beads made of something such as lead, as much as the circumference of the penis will allow. 12 It has a mouth at one end through which the penis enters and a slit on both sides for the string that ties it to the hips.
It has rough, raised dots all over it. It is called a 'coat of mail' because it covers the entire penis. Both the 'coat of mail' and the 'little net' should be used with consideration of the length and circumference of the penis to which it is attached.* 13 Take the wooden garland and wind it around the penis so that it fits very tightly.
16 Someone skilled pulls back the foreskin to expose the glans, holds it back, and then cuts through the glans sideways so that there is an opening on both sides. Standing in the water stops the bleeding. 17 To keep the opening from closing up, he couples many times, because this produces an obstacle to the sense of self and so dispels the pain.
18 He cleans the wound. 21 He uses lead because it expands; and the lead knot, wrapped as if by a palm leaf, soon enlarges the opening. 22 He lubricates the opening in order to insert things in it.
24 The 'round' one has a little trough in the middle, in which a leather thong is attached; the 'round on one side' has, on the other side, a trough like an elongated eight-day old sliver of moon, in which a leather thong is attached; the 'little mortar' is narrow in the middle, where a leather thong is attached. Both the 'little blossom' and 'the thorny' should be inserted lengthwise; 'the eight circles' and 'the spinning top' should be inserted on an angle.
Compare 622
Other objects may be used, too, and any means that give sexual pleasure. Attaching a leather thong to some of them prevents any harm from resulting from the act. As for individual preferences, one must determine the roughness of the vagina, according to its smooth, medium, or extremely rough quality, and choose a device of appropriate roughness; and, similarly, one must determine the softness of the vagina, and find devices appropriate to that softness.
25 Do not use anything else that comes from trees, just these insects. Hold the creatures with tweezers and press the stings hard against the sides of the penis. Let the penis hang down from the hole in the bed to make it longer.
26 When it has reached the size you want, use the cooling astringents, or else both the swelling and the pain will go on increasing. 33 The minute that he touches her, his penis will not stand up. 37 It opens her wide for one night.
43 Coat the flute by washing it, many times, inside and out, with water in which the herbs have been steeped. 54 They are forbidden for the particular places and people who are strongly cautioned against them. 55 This was said earlier [at 2.9.41].
56 He learned them from gurus and thought about them with his own intelligence.
Hub 623
Cycle 624
Flow 625
Ladder 626
Compare 627
Hub 628
Main Points
1. Book order matters: social life before technique. 2. Kama is one of the three aims; it has limits and alliances. 3. The hero and heroine are social types, not universal lovers. 4. Third parties (messengers, friends) run much of the plot of desire. 5. Technique lists are taxonomies, not pornography for their own sake. 6. Power, money, and caste sit inside erotic advice. 7. Other men's wives and courtesans get separate books for a reason. 8. Occult and aphrodisiac lore closes the science as the text frames it. 9. Commentary glosses can moralize or eroticize; watch which. 10. A closer look for translator choices that modernize consent language. 12. Desire here is taught, practiced, and risked. 14. Household and court are the primary stages. 15.
Frameworks
About this book
Kamasutra: A New, Complete English Translation of the Sanskrit Text with Excerpts from the Sanskrit Jayamangala Commentary by Vatsyayana, 2002. This is a chapter-by-chapter study of the book, with summaries, maps, tables and diagrams; short quotations keep their page references. It is shared free for personal study, is not for sale, and is not endorsed by the author or publisher. Please read and buy the original.
Insight Editions · rajeshrmahapatra.com/insight-editions